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REVOLT OF THE TARTARS 



OR 



FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCK KHAN 



BY 



THOMAS DE QUINCEY 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ECLECTIC ENGLISH CLASSICS 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS 

OR 

FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCK KHAN 



THOMAS DE QUINCEY 



NEW YORK • : • CINCINNATI • : • CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 
1895 



^^*^ 



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Copyright, 1895, by 
American Book Company. 

REVOLT OF THE TARTARS, 

M. I 



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INTRODUCTION. 



The author of the " Revolt of the Tartars," Thomas De 
Quincey, was born on the 15th of August, 1785, in Manchester, 
Eng. In his reminiscences of childhood he shows himself to 
have been a timid, sensitive child, endowed with a capacious 
memory. He remembered, he said, his terror at the death of a 
little sister who died when he was a year and a half old, and 
his grief, also, for the taking-off of a kingfisher, which happened 
about that time in his history. 

In the several schools of his youth he did not lose any of his 
shyness ; but he gained in studiousness, especially in an excel- 
lence in Greek and in the subtle intellectual force which is the 
spirit of the Greek tongue. When he was fifteen, his master re- 
marked of him to a visiting stranger, " That boy could harangue 
an Athenian mob better than you or I could address an English 
one." At sixteen he was a runaway in Wales and London, hungry, 
cold, and destitute of money to buy shelter. 

At last, by bartering a part of his prospects of inheritance with 
a broker, he gained money to go to Oxford. It was here, in 1804, 
in the midst of his studies, that he first experimented with the 
deadly drug to which, the rest of his life, he was in some degree 
the slave. His health had been undermined by his London 

5 



6 IXTRODUCTIOX. 

Starvation and exposure, and an attack of acute neuralgia in- 
duced him to take opium. 

Leaving Oxford, he sought Wordsworth at Grasmere in the 
Lake District ; and by the kindness of the poet and of his helpful 
sister Dorothy he established himself in a cottage not far away. 
"And what am I doing amongst the mountains?" he wrote. 
"Taking opium. Yes; but what else.^ ^^ hy; reader, in 1812, 
the year we are now arrived at, as well as for some years previ- 
ous, I have been chiefly studying German metaphysics, or the 
writings of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, etc. And how and in what 
manner do I live? in short, what class or description of men do 
I belong to? I am at this period — viz., in 181 2 — living in a 
cottage, and as a scholar and a man of learned education, I may 
presume to class myself as an unworthy member of that indefinite 
body called ' gentlemen.' Partly on the ground I have assigned, 
— partly because, from having no visible calling or business, it is 
rightly judged that I must be living on my private fortune, — I 
am so classed by my neighbors ; and by the courtesy of modern 
England I am usually addressed on letters, etc., ' Esquire.' . . . 
Am I married? Not yet. And I still take opium? On Saturday 
nights." 

In 1 8 16 De Quincey married the daughter of a neighboring 
farmer, and now must needs turn to some practical means of 
support. But his will had been paralyzed by opium, and he had 
fallen into that deadly torpor of the moral energies which always 
follows its use. For a time he suffered complete prostration. 

The way out of his hideous condition chanced to be through 
the appearance in a magazine of his " Confessions of an Opium 
Eater, being an Extract from the Life of a Scholar." The charm- 
ing imaginativeness of the piece, and its fair literary touch, joined 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

with its garrulous and unblushing egotism, surprised the public, 
and made its popularit}^ From this time, De Quincey helped to 
support his family by his literary efforts. 

Later on he moved to Edinburgh. Here he continued in the 
city, or in the little cottage of Lasswade, seven miles away, — the 
cottage of Scott's early married life and first good fortune in lit- 
erature, — till his death in 1859. These years were full of work. 
The needs of his family pressed upon him, and incited to his use 
the vast stores of learning acquired in earlier years. He dealt with 
many subjects, autobiographic, historical, biographical, specula- 
tive, and pure imaginative. The multifariousness of his matter 
is perhaps one of the strong expressions of his genius. 

" For my own part," he said, " without breach of truth or 
modesty, I may affirm that my life has been, on the whole, the 
life of a philosopher. From my birth I was made an intellectual 
creature ; and intellectual in the highest sense my pursuits and 
pleasures have been, even from my schoolboy days." At an- 
other time: " I' have passed more of my life in absolute and 
unmitigated solitude, voluntarily and for intellectual purposes, 
than any person of my age whom I have ever either met with, 
heard of, or read of." 

About the beginning of the eighteenth century, when the cele- 
brated Kang Hi was reigning Emperor of China, there was a re- 
volt of one of his vassal tribes. A whole people withdrew from 
his protection, and, going westward, of their own will came under 
the dominion of the Russian Czar, They settled upon the lands 
that lie between the Volga and the Ural, and there had years of 
tolerable prosperity. But memories of their old home and the 
milder rule of the Chinese were always with them. 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

It happened, therefore, that when Kang Hi had long been dead, 
and Kien Long, his great and sagacious grandson, had come to 
the Chinese throne, these Torgouths turned about in mind, and 
considered the exactions under which they now suffered. The 
noise of Kien Long's victories was passing from mouth to mouth ; 
and when he had completed his conquest of the turbulent tribes 
of Central Asia it was toward the year 1770. 

Now the Torgouths suffered because the Russians held them 
as a sort of feudal vassal. They drew away their youth to fight 
and perhaps to die in Russian wars, and their cattle and other 
belongings they took to help make the tyrannical government at 
St. Petersburg more and more tyrannical. Taxes, instead of less- 
ening, increased as the years went on. It is not to be wondered 
at, then, that, along with the reports of Kien Long's victorious 
wars, there was whispered also the news of his proclamation, to 
the effect that the prodigal Torgouths would at any time be wel- 
comed back ; for Kien Long was amiable as well as far-sighted. 

The exact cause which determined the revolt and flight from 
Russian authority which the Torgouths planned, historians cannot 
agree upon. One says that the son of Oubacha, their chief, was 
seized by the Russians as a hostage. Kien Long in his memoirs, 
which the French Jesuit missionaries at Pekin have translated, says, 
" The Russians never ceasing to require him to furnish soldiers 
for incorporation into their armies ; and having at last carried off 
his own son to serve them as a hostage, and being, besides, of a 
religion different from his, and paying no respect to that of the 
lamas, which the Torgouths profess, Oubacha and his people at 
last determined to shake off a yoke which was becoming daily 
more and more insupportable. "i De Quincey, in the following 
1 Quoted by Professor Masson in his edition of Quincey's writings. 



IXTRODUCriON. 9 

splendid essay, attributes the flight to the sinister revenge of 
Zebek-Dorchi, Oubacha's relative and rival. 

Whatever may have been the cause, the Torgouths determined 
no longer to hesitate. " After having secretly deliberated among 
themselves, they concluded that they must abandon a residence 
where they had so much to suffer, in order to come and live 
more at ease in those parts of the dominion of China where the 
religion professed is that of Fo." i 

At the end of the year 1770 they collected their herds and 
flocks, and began to retrace the flight of the earlier generation. 
When they broke camp they numbered several hundred thou- 
sand souls. " They carried," says Kien Long, " their wives, their 
children, and all their baggage." 

For eight months they traversed the Siberian steppes, at first 
through the ice and snow of winter, and in the end over the 
desert and through the maddening heat of summer. The very 
hugeness of the Russian Empire, and its lack of organization, and 
the remoteness of its forces, were their guaranties of safety ; for 
the distances were too long and the supply of soldiery too scant 
to allow the Russians to interrupt, or molest in any considerable 
way, their flight. 

" I knew already," says Kien Long in his narrative, " that the 
Torgouths were on the march to come and make submission to 
me. The news was brought me not long after their departure from 
Etchil [a region of European Russia, north of the Caspian Sea]. 
I then reflected that as Ileton, general of the troops that are at 
Ily [Hi, or Kuldja, capital of a mountainous district on the west- 
ern borders of Chinese or Eastern Turkestan], was already charged 
with other important affairs, it was to be feared that he would not 

1 Quoted in Masson's editorial note. 



lo INTRODUCTION. 

be able to regulate with all the requisite attention those which 
concerned these new refugees. Chouhede, one of the councilors 
of the general, was at Ouche [about a hundred and fifty miles 
south of Hi], charged with keeping order among the Mohammed- 
ans there. As he found it within his power to give his attention 
to the Torgouths, I ordered him to repair to Ily, and do his best 
for their solid settlement. ... At the same time I did not neglect 
any of the precautions that seemed to me necessary. I ordered 
Chouhede to raise small forts and redoubts at the most important 
points, and to cau.se all the passes to be carefully guarded ; and I 
enjoined on him the duty of himself getting ready the necessary 
provisions of every kind inside those defenses. . . . The Torgouths 
arrived, and on arriving found lodgings ready, means of suste- 
nance, and all the conveniences they could have found in their 
own proper dwellings. This is not all. Those principal men 
among them who had come personally to do me homage had 
their expenses paid, and were honorably conducted, by the im- 
perial post road, to the place where I then was. I saw them ; I 
spoke to them ; I invited them to partake with me in the pleasures 
of the chase ; and at the end of the number of days appointed 
for the exercise they attended me in my retinue as far as Ge-hol 
[the summer residence of the Chinese Emperor, Mu Ching Te, a 
hundred and ten miles northeast of Pekin]. There I gave them 
a ceremonial banquet, and made them the customary presents. 
... It was at this Ge-hol, in those charming parts where Kang 
Hi, my grandfather, made himself an abode to which he could 
retire during the hot season, at the same time that he thus put 
himself in a situation to be able to watch with greater care over 
the welfare of the peoples that are beyond the western frontiers 
of the empire, — it was, I say, in those lovely parts that . . . one 



IXTRODUCTIOX. 1 1 

of the branches of the Eleuths which first separated itself from 
the trunk, those Torgouths who had voluntarily expatriated them- 
selves to go and live under a foreign and distant dominion, these 
same Torgouths are come of themselves to submit to me of their 
own good will ; and it happens that it is still at Ge-hol, not far 
from the venerable spot where my grandfather's ashes repose, that 
I have the opportunity, which I never sought, of admitting them 
solemnly into the number of my subjects." ^ 

1 Quoted in Masson's editorial note. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS ; 

OR, 

FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCK KHAN AND HIS PEOPLE FROM 
THE RUSSIAN TERRITORIES TO THE FRON- 
TIERS OF CHINA. 



THERE is no great event in modern history, or, perhaps it 
may be said more broadly, none in all history, from its 
earliest records, less generally known, or more striking to the 
imagination, than the flight eastwards of a principal Tartar nation 
across the bomidless steppes i of Asia in the latter half of the last 
century. The tcrDiinus a quo'- of this flight and the tcnninus ad 
quern '■^ are equally magnificent, — the mightiest of Christian 
thrones being the one, the mightiest of Pagan the other i'^ and 
the grandeur of these two terminal objects is harmoniously sup- 
ported by the romantic-^ circumstances of the flight. In the 
abruptness of its commencement and the fierce velocity of its 
execution, we read an expression of the wild, barbaric character 
of the agents. In the unity of purpose connecting this myriad 
of wills, and in the blind but unerring aim at a mark so re- 

1 Level tracts or plains in European and Asiatic Russia. They are char- 
acterized by a g^-assy vegetation, rolling hills, sand and alkali patches, lakes, 
and now and then rivers skirted by trees. 

2 The starting point. 3 The terminating point. 

* " The mightiest of Christian thrones," i.e., the Russian ; " tlie mightiest 
of Pagan," i.e., the Chinese. 

5 Having the qualities of the marvelous and imaginative. 

1.^ 



14 THOMAS DE QUIXCEY. 

mote,^ there is something which recalls to the mind those almighty 
instincts that propel the migrations of the swallow or the life- 
withering- marches of the locust. Then, again, in the gloomy 
vengeance of Russia and her vast artillery, which hung upon 
the rear and the skirts of the fugitive vassals, we are reminded of 
Miltonic images, — such, for instance, as that of the solitary hand 
pursuing through desert spaces and through ancient chaos a re- 
bellious host, and overtaking with volleying thunders those who 
believed themselves already within the security of darkness and 
of distance. 3 

We shall have occasion, farther on, to compare this event with 
other great national catastrophes as to the magnitude of the suffer- 
ing ; but it may also challenge a comparison with similar events 
under another relation, viz., as to its dramatic capabilities.^ Few 
cases, perhaps, in romance or history, can sustain a close collation 
with this as to the complexity of its separate interests. The great 
outline of the enterprise, taken in connection with the operative 
motives, hidden or avowed, and the religit)us sanctions under 
which it was pursued, give to the case a triple character: ist, 
That of a conspiracy, with as close a unity in the incidents, and 
as much of a personal interest in the moving characters, with fine 
dramatic contrasts, as belongs to " Venice Preserved"'^ or to the 
" Fiesco " "^ of Scliiller. 2d, That of a great military expedition, 
offering the same romantic features of vast distances to be trav- 
ersed, vast reverses to be sustained, untried routes, enemies ob- 
scurely ascertained, and hardships too vaguely prefigured, which 
mark the Egyptian expedition of Cambyses ;" the anabasis^ of the 

1 That is, China. 

2 When clouds of locusts settle upon a land, they eat all tender vegetation. 

3 See Paradise Lost, II. 77-81. See, also, I. 35-50; II. 24-30, 60-70; 
VI. 834, 879. 

* Possibilities of being the subject of a drama. 

■'• The masterpiece of Thomas Otway (1651-85). 

6 One of the early dramas of Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805). 

" King of the Medes and Persians, who overran Egypt about 550 B.C. 

^ The anabasis, or going up from his satrapy in Asia Minor to the Per- 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 15 

younger Cyrus, and the subsequent retreat of the ten thousand 
to the Black Sea ; the Parthian expeditions ^ of the Romans, espe- 
cially those of Crassus and Julian ; or (as more disastrous than 
any of them, and in point of space as well as in amount of forces 
more extensive) the R\issian anabasis and catabasis - of Napoleon. 
3d, That of a religious exodus, authorized by an oracle^ vener- 
ated throughout many nations of Asia, — an exodus, therefore, 
in so far resembling the great scriptural exodus^ of the Israelites 
under Moses and Joshua, as well as in the very peculiar distinc- 
tion of carrying along with them their entire families, women, 
children, slaves, their herds of cattle and of sheep, their horses 
and their camels. 

This triple character of the enterprise naturally invests it with 
a more comprehensive interest ; but the dramatic interest which 
we ascribed to it, or its fitness for a stage representation, depends 
partly upon the marked variety and the strength of the personal 
agencies concerned, and partly upon the succession of scenical '• 
situations. Even the steppes, the camels, the tents, the snowy 

sian capital in the interior, was undertaken by Cyrus to satisfy his ambition 
of dispossessing his brother, Artaxerxes, of the Persian throne. He niarclied, 
says Xenophon, with a hundred thousand l^arbarians and a little more than 
ten thousand Greeks. The Greeks remained unconquered at the end of the 
battle, in wliich Cyrus was killed, and made a famous retreat through the 
enemy's country to the sea. 

1 In early history the Partliians dwelt in the mountains to the southwest of 
the Caspian. Afterwards they extended their kingdom to the Euphrates and 
Tigris. In 53 B.C. the Romans under Crassus carried war against tliem to 
the heart of Mesopotamia. The Roman defeat was followed by the death of 
Crassus, down whose throat the Parthians, in derision of his love of riches, 
poured molten gold. The famous Julian, surnamed " the Apostate," led his, 
army into the hostile country of the Persians, and met his early death in battle 
in A.D. 363. 

2 " A going down." The reference is to Napoleon's retreat from Mos- 
cow, which was begun in the autumn of 181 2 (see Note 2, p. 40). 

3 The Kalmuck lama, or pontiff (see Note I, p. 24). 
* See Exod. i.— xvii. ; Josh, i.-xii. 

^ Dramatic ; fitted for the theater. 



1 6 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

and the sandy deserts, are not beyond the scale of our modern 
representative powers as often called into action in the theaters 
both of Paris and London ; and the series of situations unfolded, 
beginning with the general conflagration on the Volga, passing 
thence to the disastrous scenes of the flight (as it literally was in 
its commencement) ; to the Tartar siege of the Russian fortress 
Koulagina ; the bloody engagement with the Cossacks ^ in the 
mountain passes at Ouchim ; the surprisal by the Bashkirs- and 
the advanced posts of the Russian army at Turgai;^ the private 
conspiracy at this point against the khan ;■* the long succession 
of running fights ; the parting massacres at the Lake of Tengis 
under the eyes of the Chinese;"' and finally the tragical retri- ' 
bution to Zebek-Dorchi at the hunting lodge of the Chinese 
Emperor, — all these situations communicate a scenical animation 
to the wild romance, if treated dramatically : whilst a higher and 
a philosophic interest belongs to it as a case of authentic history, 
commemorating a great revolution, for good and for evil, in the 
fortunes of a whole people, — a people semibarbarous, but simple- 
hearted and of ancient descent. 

On the 2 1 St of January, 1761, the young Prince Oubacha as- 
sumed the scepter of the Kalmucks " upon the death of his father. 
Some part of the power attached to this dignity he had already 
wielded since his fourteenth year, in quality of vice-khan, by the 

1 A military people liviiiy i)i the southeastern part of Russia and in Siberia. 
They are supposed to l)e of Russian origin, forced into a tribal existence for 
self-defense (see pp. 48, 49). 

2 Uncivilized tribes of a Finnish and Tartar ancestry, found west of the 
Ural Mountains in the south of Russia, and partly nomadic. They were 
conquered by the Russians in the eighteenth century. 

s City and river of Siberia, north of the Aral Sea, in the province of Turgansk. 

* The name of the chiefs or kings of the petty tribes of west Central Asia. 

5 See p. 67. 

^ Used here interchangeablv \\ ith Tartars. They are of the Mongolian 
family, and live in southeastern Russia and in parts of Siberia and the Chinese 
Empire. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 17 

express appointment, and with the avowed support, of the Rus- 
sian Government. He was now about eighteen years of age, ami- 
able in his personal character, and not without titles to respect 
in his public character as a sovereign prince. In times more 
peaceable, and amongst a people more entirely civilized or more 
hiuiianized by religion, it is even probable that he might have dis- 
charged his high duties with considerable distinction ; but his lot 
was thrown upon stormy times, and a most difficult crisis amongst 
tribes whose native ferocity was exasperated by debasing forms 
of superstition, and by a nationality as well as an inflated conceit 
of their own merit absolutely unpa-ralleled ; whilst the circum- 
stances of their hard and trying position under the jealous sur- 
veillance 1 of an irresistible lord paramount,- in the person of the 
Russian Czar, gave a fiercer edge to tlie natural unamiableness of 
the Kalmuck disposition, and irritated its gloomier qualities into 
action under the restless impulses of suspicion and permanent dis- 
trust. No prince could hope for a cordial allegiance from his sub- 
jects, or a peaceful reign, under the circumstances of the case ; 
for the dilemma in which a Kalmuck ruler stood at present was 
of this nature : laantiiig the sanction and support of the Czar, he 
was inevitably too weak from without to command confidence 
from his subjects, or resistance to his competitors. On the other 
hand, zvith this kind of support, and deriving his title in any de- 
gree from the favor of the imperial court, he became almost in 
that extent an object of hatred at home and within the whole com- 
pass of his own teixitory. He was at once an object of hatred 
for the past, being a living monument of national independence 
ignominiously surrendered, and an object of jealousy for the future, 
as one who had already advertised himself to be a fitting tool for 
the ultimate purposes (whatsoever those might prove to be) of the 
Russian court. Coming himself to the Kalmuck scepter under the 
heaviest weight of prejudice from the unfortunate circumstances 
of his position, it might have been expected that Oubacha would 
have been preeminently an object of detestation ; for, besides his 

1 Oversight ; supervision ; watch. 2 The supreme lord. 



1 8 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

known dependence upon the cabinet ^ of St. Petersburg, the direct 
line of succession had been set aside, and the principle of inherit- 
ance violently suspended, in favor of his own father, so recently 
as nineteen years before the era ot his own accession, consequently 
within the lively remembrance of the existing generation. He 
therefore, almost equally with his father, stood within the full cur- 
rent of the national prejudices, and might have anticipated the 
most pointed hostility. But it was not so : such are the caprices 
in human affairs that he was even, in a moderate sense, popular, 
— a benefit which wore the more cheering aspect and the prom- 
ises of permanence, inasmuch as he owed it exclusively to his per- 
sonal qualities of kindness and affability, as well as to the benefi- 
cence of his government. On the other hand, to balance this 
unlooked-for prosperity at the outset of his reign, he met with 
a rival in popular favor, almost a competitor, in the person of 
Zebek-Dorchi, a prince with considerable pretensions to the throne, 
and perhaps it might be said, with equal pretensions. Zebek- 
Dorchi was a direct descendant of the same royal house as him- 
self, through a different branch. On public grounds his claim 
stood, perhaps, on a footing equally good with that of Oubacha ; 
whilst his personal qualities, even in those aspects which seemed 
to a philosophical observer most odious and repulsive, promised 
the most effectual aid to the dark purposes of an intriguer or a 
conspirator, and were generally* fitted to win a popular support 
precisely in those points where Oubacha was most defective. 
He was much superior in external appearance to his rival on the 
throne, and so far better qualified to win the good opinion of a 
semibarbarous people ; whilst his dark intellectual qualities of 
Machiavellian - dissimulation, profound hypocrisy, and perfidy 
which knew no touch of remorse, were admirably calculated to 
sustain any ground which he might win from the simple-hearted 

1 The imperial cabinet, or council, which aiiled the Empress Elizabeth in 
carrying on the government of Russia. 

2 Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a Florentine diplomatist and writer whose 
political dissimuhuion and hypocrisy liave become proverbial. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 19 

people with whom he had to deal, and from the frank careless- 
ness of his unconscious competitor. 

At the very outset of his treacherous career, Zebek-Dorchi was 
sagacious enough to perceive that nothing could be gained by 
open declaration of hostility to the reigning prince. The choice 
had been a deliberate act on the part of Russia; and Elizabeth 
Petrowna ^ was not the person to recall her own favors with lev- 
ity or upon slight grounds. Openly, therefore, to have declared 
his enmity towards his relative on the throne could have had no 
effect but that of arming suspicions against his own ulterior pur- 
poses in a quarter where it was most essential to his interest that 
for the present all suspicion should be hoodwinked.^ Accord- 
ingly, after much meditation, the course he took for opening his 
snares was this : he raised a rumor that his own life Avas in dan- 
ger from the plots of several saissang (that is, Kalmuck nobles) 
who were leagued together under an oath to assassinate him ; and 
immediately after, assuming a well-counterfeited alarm, he fled 
to Tcherkask,^ followed by sixty-five tents. ^ From this place he 
kept up a correspondence with the imperial court, and, by way 
of soliciting his cause more effectually, he soon repaired in per- 
son to St. Petersburg. Once admitted to personal conferences 
with the cabinet, he found no difficulty in winning over the Rus- 
sian councils to a concurrence with some of his political views, 
and thus covertly introducing the point of that wedge which was 
finally to accomplisli his purposes. In particular, he persuaded 
the Russian Government to make a very important alteration in 
the constitution of the Kalmuck state council, which in effect re- 
organized the whole political condition of the state, and disturbed 

1 A daughter of Peter the Great and Catharine I. She dispossessed the 
reigning Czar, a child a few months old, and administered the government 
successfully, till her death in 1762. 

2 Iij the old sport of hawking, or falconry, " when the hawk was not 
flying at her game, she was usually hoodwinked (blindfolded) with a cap or 
hood . . . fitted to her head." . 

^ Circassia, at the northeast corner of the Black Sea. 
^ The people dwelling under sixty-five tents. 



2 THOMAS DE QUIXCEY. 

the balance of power ' as previously adjusted. Of this council, 
in the Kalmuck language called sarga, there were eight mem- 
bers, called sargatchi ; and hitherto it had been the custom that 
these eight members should be entirely subordinate to the khan, 
holding, in fact, the ministerial - character of secretaries and as- 
sistants, but in no respect ranking as coordinate authorities. That 
had produced some inconveniences in former reigns ; and it was 
easy for Zebek-Dorchi to point the jealousy of the Russian court 
to others more serious which might arise in future circumstances 
of war or other contingencies. It was resolved, therefore, to place 
the sargatchi henceforward on a footing of perfect independence, 
and therefore (as regarded responsibility) on a footing of equality 
with the khan. Their independence, however, liad respect only 
to their own sovereign ; for towards Russia they were placed in 
a new attitude of direct duty and accountability by the creation 
in their favor of small pensions (three hundred rubles ■* a year), 
which, however, to a Kalmuck of that day, were more consider- 
able than might be supposed, and had a further value as marks 
of honorary distinction emanating from a great Empress. Thus 
far the purposes of Zebek-Dorchi were served effectually for the 
moment ; but apparently it was only for the moment, since, in 
the further development of his plots, this very dependency upon 
Russian influence would be the most serious obstacle in his way. 
There was, however, another point carried, which outweighed all 
inferior considerations, as it gave him a power of setting aside dis- 
cretionally whatsoever should arise to disturl) his plots, — he was 
himself appointed president and controller of the sargatchi. The 
Russian court had been aware of his high pretensions by birth, 
and hoped by this promotion to satisfy the ambition which in 
some degree was acknowledged to be a reasonable passion for 
any man occupying his situation. 

1 " The balance of power," i.e., a distribution and opposition of force. 
'^ Pertaining to a minister, or ministry of state. 

3 Tlie value of the ruble has varied at different times : it is now about 
seventy-seven cents. In the fourteenth century the Russians began to use 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 21 

Having thus completely blindfolded the cabinet of Russia, 
Zebek-Dorchi proceeded in his new character to fulfill his politi- 
cal mission with the Khan of the Kalmucks. So artfully did he 
prepare the road for his favorable reception at the court of this 
prince, that he was at once and universally welcomed as a public 
benefactor. The pensions of the councilors were so much addi- 
tional wealth poured into the Tartar exchequer: as to the ties of 
dependency ^ thus created, experience had not yet enlightened 
these simple tribes as to that result. And that he himself should 
be the chief of these mercenary councilors was so far from being 
charged upon Zebek as any oflfense, or any ground of suspicion, 
that his relative the khan returned him hearty thanks for his ser- 
vices, under the belief that he could have accepted this appoint- 
ment only with a view to keep out other and more unwelcome 
pretenders, who would not have had the same motives of con- 
sanguinity or friendship for executing its duties in a spirit of 
kindness to the Kalmucks. The first use which he made of his 
new functions about the khan's person was to attack the court 
of Russia, by a romantic - villainy not easily to be credited, for 
those very acts of interference with the council which he himself 
had prompted. This was a dangerous step ; but it was indispen- 
sable to his further advance upon the gloomy path which he had 
traced out for himself. A triple vengeance was what he medi- 
tated: (i) upon the Russian cabinet, for having undervalued his 
own pretensions to the throne; (2) upon his amiable rival, for 
having supplanted him ; and (3) upon all those of the nobility who 
had manifested their sense of his weakness by their neglect, or 
their sense of his perfidious character by their suspicions. Here 
was a colossal outline of wickedness ; and by one in his situation, 
feeble (as it might seem) for the accomphshment of its humblest 
parts, how was the total edifice to be reared in its comprehensive 

silver in bars for the purposes of trade. The piece cut off (ruble) is named 
from the Russian " cut " (i-nbiti'). 

1 Dependence upon or reference to the Russian court. 

2 Marvelous ; chimerical. 



2 2 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

crandeur ? He, a worm as he was, could he venture to assail 
the mighty behemoth ^ of Muscovy,- the potentate who counted 
three hundred languages around the footsteps of his throne, and 
from whose "lion ramp " ■* recoiled alike "baptized and infidel," * 
— Christendom on the one side, strong by her intellect and her 
organization, and the " barbaric East " on the other, with her 
unnumbered numbers ? The match was a monstrous one ; but 
in its very monstrosity there lay this germ of encouragement, — 
that it could not be suspected. The very hopelessness of the 
scheme grounded his hope ; and he resolved to execute a venge- 
ance which should involve, as it were, in the unity ''• of a well- 
laid tragic fable, all whom he judged to be his enemies. That 
vengeance lay in detaching from the Russian Empire the whole 
Kalmuck nation, and breaking up that system of intercourse 
which had thus far been beneficial to both. This last was a con- 
sideration which moved him but little. True it was that Russia 
to the Kalmucks had secured lands and extensive pasturage ; 
true it was that the Kalmucks reciprocally to Russia had fur- 
nished a powerful cavalry ; but the latter loss would be part of his 
triumph, and the former might be more than compensated in 
other climates, under other sovereigns. Here was a scheme, 
which, in its final accomplishment, would avenge him bitterly on 
the Czarina, and in the course of its accomplishment might fur- 
nish him with ample occasions for removing his other enemies. It 
may be readily supposed, indeed, that he who could deliberately 
raise his eyes to the Russian autocrat^ as an antagonist in single 
duel with himself was not likely to feel much anxiety about Kal- 

1 Meaning " great beast" in Hebrew. The word occurs in Job xl. 15. 

2 An old name for Russia. 

3 Leap ; spring. The phrase is from Milton's Samson Agonistes, line 139. 
^ " Baptized and infidel," i.e., Christian and Mohammedan (see Paradise 

Lost, L 582). 

5 The quality by which all the particulars shoujd be subordinated to the 
one general design, — in this instance of vengeance. 

^ The " Autocrat of all the Russias " is a title assumed by the Czar. The 
word is derived from the Greek, and means " ruling by one's self." 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 23 

muck enemies of whatever rank. He took his resolution, there- 
fore, sternly and irrevocably to effect this astonishing translation 
of an ancient people across the pathless deserts of Central Asia, 
intersected continually by rapid rivers rarely furnished with 
bridges, and of which the fords were known only to those who 
might think it for their interest to conceal them, through many 
nations inhospitable or hostile, — frost and snow around them 
(from the necessity of commencing their flight in the winter), 
famine in their front, and the saber, or even the artillery, of an 
offended and mighty empress hanging upon their rear for thoti- 
sands of miles. But what was to be their final mark, the port of 
shelter, after so fearful a course of wandering ? Two things 
were evident : it must be some power at a great distance from 
Russia, so as to make return even in that view hopeless, and it 
must be a power of sufficient rank to insure them protection from 
any hostile efforts on the part of the Czarina for reclaiming them 
or for chastising their revolt. Both conditions were united ob- 
viously in the person of Kien Long,^ the reigning Emperor of 
China, who was further recommended to them by his respect 
for the head of their religion. To China, therefore, and, as their 
first rendezvous, to the shadow of the great Chinese Wall,- it was 
settled by Zebek tliat they should direct their flight. 

Next came the question of time. When shotild the flight com- 
mence ? and finally the more delicate question as to the choice 
of accomplices. To extend the knowledge of the conspiracy too 
far was to insure its betrayal to the Russian Government. Yet 
at some stage of the preparations it was evident that a very ex- 
tensive confidence must be made, because in no other way could 

1 " Kien Long, Emperor of China 1735-96, was the fourth Chinese em- 
peror of the Mantchoo-Tartar dynasty, and a man of the highest reputation 
for ability and accomplishment." — Masson. 

2 The wall was designed as a fortification against hostile tribes to the 
north of the empire. It was begun in 214 B.C. It is about fourteen 
hundred miles long, and upon the plain thirty feet high. When carried 
over rocks, it is not so high. It is defended by towers placed at short 
intervals. 



2 4 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

the mass of the Kalmuck population be persuaded to furnish 
their families with the requisite equipments for so long a migra- 
tion. This critical step, however, it was resolved to defer up to 
the latest possible moment, and at all events to make no general 
communication on the subject until the time of departure should 
be definitely settled. In the meantime Zebek admitted only- 
three persons to his confidence, of Avhom Oubacha, the reigning 
prince, was almost necessarily one ; but him, from his yielding 
and somewhat feeble character, he viewed rather in the light of 
a tool than as one of his active accomplices. Those Avhom (if 
anybody) he admitted to an unreserved participation in his 
counsels were two only, — the great lama^ among the Kalmucks, 
and his OAvn father-in-law, Erempel, a ruling prince of some tribe 
in the neighborhood of the Caspian Sea, recommended to his 
favor not so much by any strength of talent corresponding to the 
occasion as by his blind devotion to himself and his passionate 
anxiety to promote the elevation of his daughter and his son-in- 
law to the throne of a sovereign prince. A titular '^ prince, Zebek 
already was ; but this dignity, without the substantial accompani- 
ment of a scepter, seemed but an empty sound to both of these 
ambitious rivals. The other accomplice, v.'hose name was Loo- 
sang-Dchaltzan, and whose rank was that of lama, or Kalmuck 
pontiff, was a person of far more distinguished pretensions. He 
had something of the same gloomy and terrific pride which 
marked the character of Zebek himself, manifesting also the 
same energy, accompanied by the same unfaltering cruelty, and a 
natural facility of dissimulation even more profound. It was by 
this man that the other question was settled as to the time for 
giving effect to their designs. His own pontifical-^ character 

1 A Thibetan word for spiritual lord ; a priest of Lamaism, one of the forms 
of the Buddhistic religion. There are several grades of lamas. This was the 
highest ecclesiastic among the Kalmucks. Of still higher rank is the dalai, or 
grand lama, who lives in Lassa, Thibet. 

'^ Being such only in name ; nominal. 

3 Belonging to a pontiff, or high priest. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 25 

had suggested to him, that in order to strengthen their influence 
with the vast mob of simple-minded men whom they were to lead 
into a howling wilderness, after persuading them to lay desolate 
their own ancient hearths, it was indispensable that they should 
be able, in cases of extremity, to plead the express sanction of 
God for their entire enterprise. This could only be done by 
addressing themselves to the great head of their religion, — the 
dalai lama of Thibet. Him they easily persuaded to countenance 
their schemes; and an oracle was delivered solemnly at Thibet, 
to the effect that no ultimate prosperity would attend this great 
exodus unless it were pursued through the years of the ti(;;er and 
the ha7-e. Now, the Kalmuck custom is to distinguish their 
years by attaching to each a denomination taken from one of 
twelve animals, the exact order of succession being absolutely 
fixed ; so that the cycle revolves, of course, through a period of a 
dozen years. Consequently, if the approaching year of the t'h^er 
were suffered to escape them, in that case the expedition must be 
delayed for twelve years more, within which period, even were 
no other unfavorable changes to arise, it was pretty well foreseen 
that the Russian Government would take the most effectual means 
for bridling their vagrant propensities by a ring fence of forts, or 
military posts, to say nothing of the still readier plan for securing 
their fidelity (a plan already talked of in all quarters) by exacting 
a large body of hostages selected from the famihes of the most 
influential nobles. On these cogent considerations it was sol- 
emnly determined that this terrific experiment should be made in 
the next year of the tigei', which happened to fall upon the Chris- 
tian year 1771. With respect to the month, there was, unhappily 
for the Kalmucks, even less latitude allowed to their choice than 
with respect to the year. It was absolutely necessary, or it was 
thought so, that the different divisions of the nation, which pas- 
tured their flocks on both banks of the Volga, should have the 
means of effecting an instantaneous junction, because the danger 
of being intercepted by flying columns of the imperial armies 
was precisely the greatest at the outset. Now, from the want of 



26 THOMAS DE QUIXCEY. 

bridges, or sufficient river craft for transporting so vast a body of 
men, the sole means which could be depended upon (especially 
where so many w'omen, children, and camels were concerned) 
was ice; and this, in a state of sufficient firmness, could not be 
absolutely counted upon before the month of January. Hence 
it happened that this astonishing exodus of a whole nation — be- 
fore so much as a wlu'sper of the design had begun to circtilate 
amongst those whom it most interested, before it was even sus- 
pected that any man's wishes pointed in that direction — had been 
definiti\ely appointed for January of the year 1771 ; and, almost 
up 10 the Christmas of 1770, the poor, simple Kalmuck herdsmen 
and their families were going nightly to their peaceful beds with- 
out even dreaming that the fiat ' had already gone forth from 
their rulers which consigned those quiet abodes, together with the 
peace and comfort which reigned within them, to a withering 
desolation, now close at hand. 

Meantime war raged on a great scale between Russia and the 
Sultan;- and, until the time arrived for throwing off their vassal- 
age,-^ it was necessary that Oubacha should contribute his usual 
contingent of martial aid : nay, it had unfortunately become 
prudent that he should contribute much more than his usual aid. 
Human experience gives ample evidence that in some mysterious 
and unaccountable way no great design is ever agitated, no matter 
how few or how faithful may be the participators, but that some 
presentiment, some dim misgiving, is kindled amongst those 
whom it is chiefly important to blind. And, however it might 
have happened, certain it is that already, when as yet no syllable 
of the conspiracy had been breatlied to any man whose very 

1 The Latin for " let it be done; " an absolute command. 

2 France had induced Turkey to declare war against Russia in 1769. The 
object was to create a diversion from the Poles. At the signing of peace in 
1774, tlie Sultan acknowledged the independence of the Mongols of the 
Crimea. 

3 Dependence ; subjection ; the condition of holding their lands with the 
obligation to render military service to their chief ruler. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 27 

existence was not staked upon its concealment, nevertheless some 
vague and uneasy jealousy had arisen in the Russian cabinet as 
to the future schemes of the Kalmuck khan ; and very proba- 
ble it is, that but for the war then raging, and the consequent 
prudence of conciliating a very important vassal, or at least of 
abstaining from what would powerfully alienate him, even at 
that moment, such measures would have been adopted as must 
forever ha\e intercepted the Kalmuck schemes. Slight as were 
the jealousies of the imperial court, they had not escaped the 
Machiavellian eyes of Zebek and the lama ; and under their guid- 
ance, Oubacha, bending to the circumstances of the moment, and 
meeting the jealousy of the Russian court with a policy corre- 
sponding to their ov>n, strove by unusual zeal to efface the Cza- 
rina's unfavorable impressions. He enlarged the scale of his con- 
tributions, and tliat so prodigiously, that he absolutely carried to 
headquarters a force of thirty-five thousand cavalry, fully equipped. 
Some go further, and rate the amount beyond forty thousand ; but 
the smaller estimate is, at all events, within the truth. 

With this magnificent array of cavalry, heavy as well as light, ^ 
the khan went into the field under great expectations ; and these 
he more than realized. Having the good fortune to be concerned 
with so ill-organized and disorderly a description of force as that 
which at all times composed the bulk of a Turkish army, he 
carried victory along with his banners, gained many partial suc- 
cesses, and at last, in a pitched battle, overthrew the Turkish force 
opposed to him, with a loss of five thousand men left upon the field. 

These splendid achievements seemed likely to operate in vari- 
ous ways against the impending revolt. Oubacha had now a 
strong motive, in the martial glory acquired, for continuing his 
connection with the empire in whose service he had won it, and 
by whom only it could be fully appreciated. He was now a 
great marshal of a great empire, — one of the paladins- around 

^ A division of cavalry which is based on the weiglit of men, horses, and 
equipments. 

^ Defending warrior ; heroic champion. In the romances which were 



2 8 rilOMAS DE QUIXCEY. 

the imperial throne. In China he would be nobody, or (worse 
than that) a mendicant alien,' prostrate at the feet, and soliciting 
the precarious alms, of a prince with whom he had no connec- 
tion. Besides, it might reasonably be expected that the Czarina, 
grateful for the really efficient aid given by the I'artar prince, 
would confer upon him such eminent rewards as migiit be suffi- 
cient to anchor his hopes upon Russia and to wean him from 
every possible seduction. These were the obvious suggestions 
of prudence and good sense to every man who stood neutral in 
the case. But they were disappointed. The Czarina knew her 
obligations to the khan ; but she did not acknowledge them. 
Wherefore ? That is a mystery perhaps never to be explained. 
So it was, however. The khan went unhonored ; no ukase - ever 
proclaimed his merits ; and perhaps, had he even been abun- 
dantly recompensed by Russia, there were others who would have 
defeated these tendencies to reconciliation. f>empel, Zebek, 
and Loosang the lama were pledged life-deep to prevent any 
accommodation ; and their eiTorts were unfortunately seconded 
by those of their deadliest enemies. In the Russian court there 
were at that time some great nobles preoccupied with feelings of 
hatred and blind malice towards the Kalmucks, quite as strong 
as any which the Kalmucks could harbor towards Russia, and 
not, perhaps, so well founded. Just as much as the Kalmucks 
hated the Russian yoke, their galling assumption of authority, 
the marked air of disdain, as towards a nation of ugly, stupid, 
and filthy barbarians,^ which too generally marked the Russian 
bearing and language, — but, above all, the insolent contempt, 
or even outrages, which the Rus.sian governors or great military 
commandants tolerated in their followers towards the barbarous 

sung and written about the name and times of Charlemagne for a center, the 
title was given to the knights who accompanied the King to war. 

1 One living in a country other tlian tliat of his birth, and not having 
therein rights of citizenship. 

'^ An order or edict given out by the Russian Government. 

3 That is, the Kalmucks. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 29 

religion and superstitious mummeries of the Kalmuck priesthood, 
— precisely in that extent did the ferocity of the Russian resent- 
ment, and their wrath at seeing the trampled worm turn, or at- 
tempt a feeble retaliation, react upon the unfortuniKe Kalmucks. 
At this crisis it is probable that envy and wounded pride, upon 
witnessing the splendid victories of Oubacha and Momotbacha 
over the Turks and Bashkirs,i contributed strength to the Rus- 
sian irritation ; and it must have been through the intrigues of 
tiiose nobles about her person who chiefly smarted under these 
feelings, that the Czarina could ever have lent herself to the un- 
wise and ungrateful policy pursued at this critical period towards 
the Kalmuck khan. That Czarina was no longer Elizabeth 
Petrowna : it was Catharine 11.,- a princess who did not often 
err so injuriously (injuriously for herself as much as for others) 
in the measiu^es of her government. She had soon ample reason 
for repenting of her false policy. Meantime, how much it must 
have cooperated with the other motives previously acting upon 
Oubacha in sustaining his determination to revolt, and how 
powerfully it must have assisted the efforts of all the Tartar chief- 
tains in preparing the minds of their people to feel the necessity 
of this difficult enterprise, by arming their pride and their suspi- 
cions against the Russian Government, through the keenness of 
their sympathy with the wrongs of their insulted prince, may be 
readily imagined. It is a fact, and it has been confessed by 
candid Russians themselves when treating of this great dismem- 
berment,-' that the conduct of the Russian cabinet throughout the 
period of suspense, and during the crisis of hesitation in the 
Kalmuck council, was exactly such as was most desirable for the 

1 See Note 2, p. 16. 

2 Catharine was a German princess who had married, at Elizabeth's wish, 
her nephew and successor, Peter III. She rose against her husband shorrly 
after he came to the throne, and was declared Czarina. Peter was imprisoned, 
and after a few days strangled. Catharine reigned till 1796. The measures 
of reform which she undertook had little result. 

3 The separation of the Tartars from the Russian Empire. 



30 THOMAS DE QUIXCEY. 

purposes of the conspirators : it was such, in fact, as to set the 
seal to all their machinations, ^ by supplying distinct evidences 
and official vouchers for what could otherwise have been, at the 
most, matters of doubtful suspicion and indirect presumption. 

Nevertheless, in the face of all these arguments, and even 
allowing their weight so far as not at all to deny the injustice or 
the impolicy of the imperial ministers, it is contended by many 
persons who have reviewed the affair with a command of all the 
documents bearing on the case, more especially the letters or 
minutes of council subsequently discovered, in the handwriting 
of Zebek-Dorchi, and the important evidence of the Russian 
captive Weseloff, who was carried off by the Kalmucks in their 
flight,- that beyond all doubt Oubacha was powerless for any 
[)urpose of impeding or even of delaying the revolt. He him- 
self, indeed, was under religious obligations of the most terrific 
solemnity never to flinch from the enterprise, or even to slacken 
in his zeal ; for Zebek-Dorchi, distrusting the firmness of his reso- 
lution under any unusual pressure of alarm or difficulty, had, in 
the very earliest stage of the conspiracy, availed himself of the 
khan's well-known superstition to engage him, by means of pre- 
vious concert with the priests and their head the lama, in some 
dark and mysterious rites of consecration, terminating in oaths 
under such terrific sanctions as no Kalmuck would have courage 
to violate. As far, therefore, as regarded the personal share of 
the khan in what was to come, Zebek was entirely at his ease. 
He knew him to be so deeply pledged by religious terrors to the 
prosecution of the conspiracy, that no honors within the Czarina's 
gift ccnild have possibly shaken his adhesion; and then, as to 
threats from the same quarter, he knew him to be sealed against 
those fears by others of a gloomier character, and better adapted 
to his peculiar temperament. For Oubacha was a brave man as 
respected all bodily enemies or the dangers of human warfare, 
but was as sensitive and timid as the most, superstitious of old 
women in facing the frowns of a priest, or under the vague antici- 

1 riots ; treacherous sclieiiies. 2 See pp. 56-60. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 31 

pations of ghostly retributions. But had it been otherwise, and 
had there been any reason to apprehend an unsteady demeanor 
on the part of this prince at the approach of the critical mo- 
ment, such were the changes already effected in the state of their 
domestic politics amongst the Tartars by the undermining arts of 
Zebek-Dorchi and his ally the lama, that very little importance 
would have attached to that doubt. All power was now effectu- 
ally lodged in the hands of Zebek-Dorchi. He was the true and 
absolute wielder of the Kalmuck scepter. All measures of 
importance were submitted to his discretion, and nothing was 
finally resolved but under his dictation. This result he had 
brought about in a year or two by means sufficiently simple : 
first of all, by availing himself of the prejudice in his favor, so 
largely diflfused amongst the lowest of the Kalmucks, that his 
own title to the throne, in quality of great-grandson in a direct 
line from Ajouka,^ the most illustrious of all the Kalmuck khans, 
stood upon a better basis than that of Oubacha, who derived 
from a collateral branch ; secondly, with respect to that sole ad- 
vantage which Oubacha possessed above himself in the ratification 
of his title, by improving this difference between their situations 
to the disadvantage of his competitor, as one who had not 
scrupled to accept that triumph from an alien power at the 
price of his independence, which he himself (as he would have it 
understood) disdained to court ; thirdly, by his own talents and 

1 " Tse-ouang-raptan then reigned over the Eleuths, one of the branches 
of the Tartars ; and Ayouki, over the Torgouths, another branch of the Tar- 
tars, dwelling in and belonging to the Chinese Empire. These two chiefs, 
being on bad terms with each other, had their mutual contests, of which 
Ayouki, who was the weaker, feared that in the end he would be the unhappy 
victim. He formed the project of withdrawing himself forever from the 
domination of the Eleuths. He took secret measures for securing the flight 
which he meditated, and sought safety, with all his people, in the territories 
wliich are under the dominion of the Russians. These permitted them to 
establish themselves in the country of Etchil [the country between the Volga 
and the Jaik, a little to the north of the Caspian Sea]." — Translatio.n' from 
KiEN LoNc's Narrative (quoted by Professor Masson). 



32 THOMAS DE QUIXCEY. 

address, coupled with the ferocious energy of his moral character ; 
fourthly, and perhaps in an equal degree, by the criminal facility 
and good nature of Oubacha ; finally (which is remarkable enough, 
as illustrating the character of the man), by that very new model- 
ing of the sarga, or privy council, which he had used as a princi- 
pal topic of abuse and malicious insinuation against the Russian 
Government, whilst in reality he first had suggested the alteration 
to the Empress, and he chiefly appropriated the political advan- 
tages which it was fitted to yield. For as he was himself ap- 
pointed the chief of the sart^atchi, and as the pensions of the 
inferior sargatchi passed througli his hands, whilst in effect they 
owed their appointments to his nomination, it may be easily sup- 
posed, that whatever power existed in the state capable of 
controlling the khan, being held by the sai-ga under its new 
organization, and this body being completely under his influence, 
the final result was to throw all the functions '" of the slate, 
whether nominally in the prince or in the council, substantially 
into the hands of this one man ; whilst at the same time, from 
the strict league which he maintained with the lama, all the 
thunders of the spiritual power were always ready to come in aid 
of the magistrate, or to supply his incapacity in cases which he 
could not reach. 

But the time was now rapidly approaching for the mighty ex- 
periment. The day was drawing near on which the signal was 
to be given for raising tlie standard of revolt, and, by a combined 
movement on both sides of the Volga, for spreading the smoke 
of one vast conflagration that should wrap in a common blaze 
their own huts and the stately cities of their enenn'es over the 
breadth and length of those great provinces in which their flocks 
were dispersed. The year of the tiger was now within one little 
month of its commencement. The fifth morning of that )7ear 
was fixed for the fatal day when the fortunes and happiness of a 
whole nation were to be put upon the hazard of a dicer's throw ; 
and as yet that nation was in profound ignorance of the whole 

' Exercise and discharge of state offices. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 33 

plan. The khan, such was the kindness of his nature, could not 
bring himself to make the revelation so urgently required. It 
was clear, however, that this could not be delayed ; and Zebek- 
Dorchi took the task willingly upon himself. But where or how 
should this notification be made, so as to exclude Russian hearers? 
After some deliberation the following plan was adopted : couriers, 
it was contrived, should arrive in furious haste, one upon the 
heels of another, reporting a sudden inroad of the Kirghises ^ and 
Bashkirs upon the Kalmuck lands at a point distant about one 
hundred and twenty miles. Thither all the Kalmuck families, 
according to immemorial custom, were required to send a sepa- 
rate representative ; and there, accordingly, within three days, all 
appeared. The distance, the solitary ground appointed for the 
rendezvous, the rapidity of the march, — all tended to make 
it almost certain that no Russian could be present. Zebek- 
Dorchi then came forward. He did not waste many words 
upon rhetoric. He unfurled an immense sheet of parchment, 
visible from the outermost distance at which any of this vast 
crowd could stand. The total number amounted to eighty 
thousand : all saw, and many heard. They were told of the op- 
pressions of Russia ; of her pride and haughty disdain, evidenced 
towards them by a thousand acts ; of her contempt for their reli- 
gion ; of her determination to reduce them to absolute slavery ; 
of the preliminary measures .she had already taken by erecting 
forts upon many of the great rivers of their neighborhood ; of 
the ulterior intentions she thus announced to circumscribe their 
pastoral lands, until they would all be obliged to renounce their 
flocks, and to collect in towns like Sarepta,- there to pursue 
mechanical and servile trades of shoemaker, tailor, and weaver, 
such as the freeborn Tartar had always disdained. " Then, 
again," said the subtle prince, " .she increases her mihtary levies 
upon our population every year. We pour out our blood as 

1 Barbarous tribes of Tartar stock intermixed with Mongol, Turk, etc. 
They live in the steppes named after them, east of the Caspian Sea. 

2 A Moravian colony near the great bend of the Volga. 

3 



34 THOMAS DE QUINCE Y. 

young men in her defense, or more often in support of her 
insolent aggressions ; and as old men we reap nothing from our 
sufferings, nor benefit by our survivorship where so many are sac- 
rificed." At this point of his harangue, Zebek produced several 
papers (forged, as it is generally believed, by himself and the 
lama) containing projects of the Russian court for a general 
transfer of the eldest sons, taken e?i masse ^ from the greatest 
Kalmuck families, to the imperial court. " Now, let this be 
once accomplished," he argued, " and there is an end of all use- 
ful resistance from that day forwards. Petitions we might make, 
or even remonstrances ; as men of words, we might play a bold 
part : but for deeds, for that sort of language by which our an- 
cestors were used to speak, holding us by such a chain, Russia 
would make a jest of our wishes, knowing full well that we should 
not dare to make any effectual movement." 

Having thus sufficiently roused the angry passions of his vast 
audience, and having alarmed their fears by this pretended scheme 
against their firstborn (an artifice which was indispensable to his 
purpose, because it met beforehand e7!ery form of amendment to 
his proposal coming from the more moderate nobles, who would 
not otherwise have failed to insist upon trying the effect of bold 
addresses to the Empress before resorting to any desperate ex- 
tremity), Zebek-Dorchi opened his scheme of revolt, and, if so, 
of instant revolt, since any preparations reported at St. Petersburg 
would be a signal for the armies of Russia to cross into such 
positions from all parts of Asia as would effectually intercept their 
march. It is remarkable, however, that, with all his audacity and 
his reliance upon the momentaiy excitement of the Kalmucks, the 
subtle prince did not venture at this stage of his seduction to make 
so startling a proposal as that of a flight to China. All that he 
held out for the present was a rapid march to the Temba^ or 
some other great river, which they were to cross, and to take up 

1 In a body; a French phrase. 

2 The Yemba or Emba, one of the northeastern affluents of the Caspian 
Sea. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 35 

a strong position on the farther bank, from which, as from a post 
of conscious security, they could hold a bolder language to the 
Czarnia, and one which would have a better chance of winning 
a favorable audience. 

These things, in the irritated condition of the simple Tartars, 
passed by acclamation ; and all returned homewards to push 
forward with the most furious speed the preparations for their 
awful undertaking. Rapid and energetic these of necessity were ; 
and in that degree they became noticeal)le and manifest to the 
Russians who happened to be intermingled with the different 
hordes, either on commercial errands or as agents officially from 
the Russian Government, — some in a financial, others in a diplo- 
matic character. 

Amongst these last (indeed, at the head of them) was a Russian 
of some distinction, by name Kichinskoi, — a man memorable 
for his vanity, and memorable also as one of the many victims 
to the Tartar revolution. This Kichinskoi had been sent by the 
Empress as her envoy to overlook the conduct of the Kalmucks. 
He was styled the grand pristaia, or great commissioner, and was 
universally known amongst the Tartar tribes by this title. His 
mixed character of ambassador and of political siu'veillaiit^ com- 
bined with the dependent state of the Kalmucks, gave him a real 
weight in the Tartar councils, and might have given him a far 
greater, had not his outrageous self-conceit and his arrogant confi- 
dence in his own authority, as due chiefly to his personal qualities 
for command, led him into such harsh displays of power, and 
menaces so odious to the Tartar pride, as very soon made him an 
object of their profoundest malice. He had publicly insulted the 
khan ; and upon making a communication to him to the effect 
that some reports began to circulate, and even to reach the Em- 
press, of a design in agitation to fly from the imperial dominions, 
he had ventured to say, " But this you dare not attempt. I laugh 
at such rumors : yes, khan, I laugh at them to the Empress ; for 
you are a chained bear, and that you know." The khan ti:rned 

1 Overseer. 



36 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

away on his heel with marked disdain ; and the pristaw, foaming 
at the mouth, continued to utter, amongst those of the khan's 
attendants who staid behind to catch his real sentiments in a 
moment of unguarded passion, all that the blindest frenzy of rage 
could suggest to the most presumptuous of fools. It was now 
ascertained that suspicions had arisen ; but at the same time it 
was ascertained that the pristaw spoke no more than the truth in 
representing himself to have discredited these suspicions. The 
fact was, that the mere infatuation of vanity made him believe 
that nothing could go on undetected by his all-piercing sagacity, 
and that no rebellion could prosper when rebuked by his com- 
manding presence. The Tartars, therefore, pursued their prepara- 
tions, confiding in the obstinate blindness of the grand pristaw, as 
in their perfect safeguard. And such it proved, to his own ruin 
as well as that of myriads beside. 

Christmas arrived ; and a little before that time courier upon 
courier came dropping in, one upon the very heels of another, to 
St. Petersburg, a.ssuring the Czarina that beyond all dcnvbt the 
Kalmucks were in the A'ery crisis of departure. These dispatches 
came from the Go\ernor of Astrachan ; and copies were instantly 
forwarded to Kichinskoi. Now, it happened that between this 
governor, a Russian named Beketoff, and the pristaw, had been 
an ancient feud. The very name of Beketoff inflamed his resent- 
ment ; and no sooner did he see that hated name attached to 
the dispatch than he felt himself confirmed in his former views 
with tenfold bigotry, and Avrote instantly, in terms of the most 
pointed ridicule, against the new alarmist, j)ledging his c)wn head 
upon the visionariness of his alarms, lieketoff, h()we\ er, was not 
to be put down by a few hard words or by ridicule. He per- 
sisted in his statements. The l\.us.sian ministry were confounded 
by the obstinacy of the di.sputants ; and some were beginning 
even to treat the Governor of Astrachan as a bore and as the 
dupe of his own nervous terrors, when the memorable day 
arrived, the fatal 5th of January, w-hich forever terminated the 
dispute, and put a seal upon the earthly hopes and fortunes of 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 37 

unnumbered myriads. The Governor of ifVstrachan was the first 
to hear the news. Stung by the mixed furies of jealousy, of 
triumphant vengeance, and of anxious ambition, he sprang into 
his sledge, and at the rate of three hundred miles a day pursued 
his route to St. Petersburg, rushed into the imperial presence, an- 
nounced the total realization of his worst predictions, and upon 
the confirmation of this intelligence by subsequent dispatches 
from many different posts on the Volga, he received an imperial 
commission to seize the person of his deluded enemy and to keep 
him in strict captivity. These orders were eagerly fulfilled ; and 
the unfortunate Kichinskoi soon afterward expired of grief and 
mortification in the gloomy solitude of a dungeon, — a victim to 
his own immeasurable vanity and the blinding self-delusions of a 
presumption that refused all warning. 

The Governor of Astrachan had been but too faithful a prophet. 
Perhaps even he was surprised at the suddenness with which the 
verification followed his reports. Precisely on the 5th of Janu- 
ary, the day so solemnly appointed under religious sanctions by 
the lama, the Kalmucks on the east bank of the Volga were seen 
at the earliest dawn of day assembling by troops and squadrons 
and in the tumultuous movement of some great morning of 
battle. Tens of thousands continued moving off the ground at 
every half hour's interval. Women and children, to the amount 
of two hundred thousand and upwards, were placed upon wagons 
or upon camels, and drew off by masses of twenty thousand at 
once, placed under suitable escorts, and continually swelled in 
numbers' by other outlying bodies of the horde who kept falling 
in at various distances upon the first and second day's march. 
From sixty to eighty thousand of those who were the best mounted 
staid behind the rest of the tribes, with purposes of devastation 
and plunder more violent than prudence justified or the amiable 
character of the khan could be supposed to approve. But in this, 
as in other instances, he was completely overruled by the malignant 
counsels of Zebek-Dorchi. The first tempest of the desolating 
fury of the Tartars discharged itself upon their own habitations. 



38 THOMAS DE QUINCE Y. 

But this, as cutting off all infirm looking backward from the hard- 
ships of their march, had been thought so necessary a measure by 
all the chieftains, that even Oubacha himself was the first to au- 
thorize the act by his own example. He seized a torch, previously 
prepared with materials the most durable as well as combustible, 
and steadily apphed it to the timbers of his own palace. Nothing 
was saved from the general wreck except the portable part of the 
domestic utensils and that part of the woodwork which could 
be applied to the manufacture of the long Tartar lances. This 
chapter in their memorable day's work being finished, and the 
whole of their villages throughout a district of ten thousand 
square miles in one simultaneous blaze, the Tartars waited for 
further orders. 

These, it was intended, should ha\-e taken a character of 
valedictory vengeance, and thus have left behind to the Czarina 
a dreadful commentary upon the main motives of their flight. 
It was the purpose of Zebek-Dorchi that all the Russian towns, 
churches, and buildings of every description should be given up 
to pillage and destruction, and such treatment applied to the de- 
fenseless inhabitants as might naturally be expected from a fierce 
people already infuriated by the spectacle of their own outrages 
and by the bloody retaliations which they must necessarily have 
provoked. This part of the tragedy, however, was happily in- 
tercepted by a providential disappointment at the very crisis of 
departure. It has been mentioned already that the motive for 
selecting the depth of winter as the season of flight (which other- 
wise was obviously the very worst possible) had been the impos- 
sibihty of effecting a junction sufficiently rapid with the tribes on 
the west of the Volga, in the absence of bridges, unless by a 
natural bridge of ice. For this one advantage the Kalmuck lead- 
ers had consented to aggrav^ate by a thousandfold the calamities 
inevitable to a rapid flight over boundless tracts of country with 
women, children, and herds of cattle, — for this one single advan- 
tage ; and yet after all it was lo.st. The reason never has been 
explained satisfactorily ; but the fact was such. Some have said 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 39 

that the signals were not properly concerted for marking the 
moment of al)soIute departure ; that is, for signifying whether 
the settled intention of the eastern Kalmucks might not have 
been suddenly interrupted by adverse intelligence. Others have 
supposed that the ice might not be equally strong on both sides 
of the river, and might even be generally insecure for the tread- 
ing of heavy and heavily laden animals such as camels. But the 
prevailing notion is, that some accidental movements on the 3d 
and 4th of January of Russian troops in the neighborhood of the 
western Kalmucks, though really having no reference to them 
or their plans, had been construed into certain signs that all was 
discovered, and that the prudence of the western chieftains, who, 
from situation, had never been exposed to those intrigues which 
Zebek-Dorchi had practiced upon the pride of the eastern tribes, 
now stepped in to save their people from ruin. Be the cause 
what it might, it is certain that the western Kalmucks were in 
some way prevented from forming the intended junction with 
their brethren of the opposite bank ; and the result was, that at 
least one hundred thousand of these Tartars were left behind in 
Russia. This accident it was which saved their Russian neigh- 
bors universally from the desolation which else awaited them. 
One general massacre and conflagration would assuredly have 
surprised them, to the utter extermination of their property, their 
houses, and themselves, had it not been for this disappointment. 
But the eastern chieftains did not dare to put to hazard the safety 
of their brethren under the first impulse of the Czarina's venge- 
ance for so dreadful a tragedy ; for, as they were well aware of too 
many circumstances by which she might discover the concurrence 
of the western people in the general scheme of revolt, they justly 
feared that she would thence infer their concurrence also in the 
bloody events which marked its outset. 

Little did the western Kalmucks guess what reasons they also 
had for gratitude on account of an interposition so unexpected, 
and which, at the moment, they so generally deplored. Could 
they but have witnessed the thousandth part of the sufferings 



40 THOMAS DE QUINCE Y. 

which overtook their eastern brethren in the first month of their 
sad flight, they would have blessed Heaven for their own narrow 
escape ; and yet these sufferings of the first month were but a pre- 
lude or foretaste comparatively slight of those which afterwards 
succeeded. 

For now began to unroll the most awful series of calamities, 
and the most extensive, which is anywhere recorded to have 
visited the sons and daughters of men. It is possible that the 
sudden inroads of destroying nations — such as the Huns, or the 
Avars, or the Mongol ^ Tartars — may have inflicted misery as ex- 
tensive ; but there the misery and the desolation would be sudden, 
like the flight of volleying lightning. Those who were spared at 
first would generally be spared to the end ; those who perished 
would perish instantly. It is possible that the French retreat 
from Moscow may have made some nearer approach to this 
calamity in duration, thougli still a feeble and miniature ap- 
proach, for the French sufferings did not commence in good 
earnest until about one month from the time of leaving Mos- 
cow;'" and though it is true that afterwards the vials of wrath >^ 
were emptied upon the devoted army for six or seven weeks in 
succession, yet what is that to this Kalmuck tragedy, which 

1 The Huns were a Mongol people who crossed the Volga in 375, and 
drove the Goths beyond the Danube. Under their king, Attila, they overran 
a great part of Europe in the first half of the fifth century, and even levied a 
tax upon the Romans. The Avars were of Turanian stock. Their first his- 
torical incursion was in the sixth century, when they settled in Dacia, and 
possessed themselves of an empire reaching from the Elbe to the Black Sea. 
After Charlemagne's time, they disappeared from history. Under Genghis 
Khan (i 160-1227) and his sons, the Mongol Tartars penetrated Europe as 
far as the Oder and Danube, subdued the empire of the Chinese, overthrew 
the Caliph of Bagdad, and destroyed many minor poAvers. 

2 The army with which Napoleon invaded Russia in the spring of 1812 was 
of more than six hundred thousand men. He began his retreat from Moscow 
on the 1 8th of October. By the middle of November, the army had dwindled 
to twelve thousand men. In the retreat from Moscow, about ninety thousand 
had been lost. 

3 The phrase " vials of wrath" is biblical (see Rev. xvi. i). 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 41 

lasted for more than as many months ? But the main feature 
of horror, by which the Tartar march was distinguished from the 
French, Hes in the accompaniment of women ^ and children. 
There were both, it is true, with the French army, but so few as 
to bear no visible proportion to the total numbers concerned. 
The French, in short, were merely an army, — a host of professional 
destroyers, whose regular trade was bloodshed, and whose regular 
element was danger and suffering ; but the Tartars were a nation 
carrying along with them more than two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand women and children, utterly unequal, for the most part, to 
any contest with the calamities before them. The children of 
Israel ^ were in the same circumstances as to the accompaniment 
of their families ; but they were released from the pursuit of their 
enemies in a very early stage of their flight ; and their subsequent 
residence in the desert was not a march, but a continued halt, 
and under a continued interposition of Heaven for their com- 
fortable support. Earthquakes, again, however comprehensive 
in their ravages, are shocks of a moment's duration. A much 
nearer approach made to the wide range and the long duration 
of the Kalmuck tragedy may have been in a pestilence such 
as that which visited Athens in the Peloponnesian War,^ or Lon- 
don in the reign of Charles II.-* There, also, the martyrs were 

1 De Quincey's Note. — Singular it is, and not generally known, that 
Grecian women accompanied the anabasis of the younger Cyrus and the sub- 
sequent Retreat of the Ten Thousand. Xenophon affirms that there were 
" many " women in the Greek army — TToXkai fjaav haipai ev tu aTparev/Ltat^i ; 
and in a late stage of that trying expedition it is evident that women were 
among the survivors. 

2 See Exod. i.-xvii. ; Josh, i.-xii. 

3 Against this pestilence, which came to Athens from Egypt, there seemed, 
says Thucydides (II. xlvii.), " to be no human aid." It fell upon the city in 
430 B.C., and carried off not less than one fourth of the people. 

4 ".It was about the beginning of September, 1664, that I, among the rest 
of my neighbors, heard in ordinary discourse that the plague was returned 
again. ... It is certain that they [men] died by heaps, and were buried by 
heaps ; that is to say, without account. And if I might believe some people 
who were more abroad, and more conversant with those things than I, . . . 



42 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

counted by myriads, and the period of tlie desolation was 
counted by months. But, after all, the total amount of destruc- 
tion was on a smaller scale ; and there was this feature of allevia- 
tion to the conscious pressure of the calamity, — that the misery 
was withdrawn from public notice into private chambers and 
hospitals. The siege of Jerusalem by Vespasian and his son,^ 
taken in its entire circumstances, comes nearest of all for breadth 
and depth of suffering, for duration, for the exasperation of the 
suffering from without by internal feuds, and, finally, for that last 
most appalHng expression of the furnace heat of the anguish in 
its power to extinguish the natural affections even of maternal 
love. But, after all, each case had circumstances of romantic 
misery peculiar to itself, — circumstances without precedent, and 
(wherever human natui'e is ennobled by Christianity), it may be 
confidently hoped, never to be repeated. 

The first point to be reached, before any hope of repose could 
be encouraged, was tlie river Ural. This was not above three 
hundred miles from the main point of departure on the Volga, 
and, if the march thither was to be a forced one and a severe one, 
it was alleged, on the other hand, that the suffering would be the 
more brief and transient : one summary exertion, not to be re- 
peated, and all was achieved. Forced the march was, and severe 
beyond example, — there the forewarning proved correct, — but 
the promised rest proved a mere phantom of the wilderness, a 

I say, if we may believe them, there was not many less buried that first three 
weeks in September tlian twenty thousand per week." — Dekoe : History of 
the Plague in London. 

1 " * Those who perished in the siege,' says Josephus, who was without 
the walls, ' from its commencement till its close, amounted to one million one 
hundred thousand. Of these the greater proportion were of Jewish blood, 
though not natives of the place. Having assembled from the whole country 
for the feast of unleavened bread, they were suddenly hemmed in by the war ; 
so that their confined situation caused at first a pestilential mortality, and after- 
wards famine also, still more rapid in its effects. . . . Thus was Jerusalem 
captured in the second year of the reign of Vespasian ' (A.D. 70), and under 
the command of his son Titus." — The Jewish War (Traill's tr.). 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 43 

visionary rainbow, which fled before their hopesick eyes, across 
these interminable solitudes, for seven months of hardship and 
calamity, without a pause. These sufferings, by their very nature 
and the circumstances under which they arose, were (Hke the 
scenery of the steppes) somewhat monotonous in their coloring 
and external features. What variety, however, there was, wiU be 
most naturally exhibited by tracing historically the successive 
stages of the general misery exactly as it unfolded itself under the 
double agency of weakness still increasing from within and hostile 
pressure from without. Viewed in this manner, under the real 
order of development, it is remarkable that these sufferings of the 
Tartars, though under the molding hands of accident, arrange 
themselves almost with a scenical propriety. They seem com- 
bined as with the skill of an artist, the intensity of the misery ad- 
vancing regularly with the advances of the march, and the stages 
of the calamity corresponding to the stages of the route ; so that, 
upon raising the curtain which veils the great catastrophe, we 
behold one vast climax of anguish, towering upwards by regular 
gradations, as if constructed artificially for picturesque effect, — a 
result which might not have been surprising, had it been reasona- 
ble to anticipate the same rate of speed, and even an accelerated 
rate, as prevailing through the later stages of the expedition. But 
it seemed, on the contrary, most reasonable to calculate upon a 
continual decrement ^ in the rate of motion according to the in- 
creasing distance from the headquarters of the pursuing enemy. 
This calculation, however, was defeated by the extraordinary cir- 
cumstance that the Russian armies did not begin to close in very 
fiercely upon the Kalmucks until after they had accomplished a 
distance of full two thousand miles. One thousand miles farther 
on, the assaults became even more tumultuous and murderous ; 
and already the great shadows of the Chinese Wall were dimly 
descried, when the frenzy and acharnemcnt'^ of the pursuers and 
the bloody desperation of the miserable fugitives had reached its 

1 T-essening; act of decreasing. 

2 Ferocity ; bloodthirstiness, as of a beast for prey. 



44 THOMAS DE QUINCE Y. 

uttermost extremity. Let us briefly rehearse the main stages of 
the misery, and trace the ascending steps of the tragedy accord- 
ing to the great divisions of tlie route marked out by the central 
rivers of Asia. 

The first stage, \^q have already said, was from the Volga to the 
Ural ; the distance about three hundred miles ; the time allowed 
seven days. For the first week, therefore, the rate of marching 
averaged about forty-three English miles a day. The weather 
was cold but bracing; and at a more moderate pace this part of 
the journey might have been accomplished without much distress 
by a people as hardy as the Kalmucks. As it was, the cattle 
suffered greatly from overdriving ; milk began to fail e\'en for 
the children ; the sheep perished by wholesale ; and the children 
themselves were saved only by the innumerable camels. 

The Cossacks v/ho dwelt upon the banks of the Ural were the 
first among the subjects of Russia to come into collision with the 
Kalmucks. Great was their surprise at the suddenness of the 
irruption, and great, also, their consternation ; for, according to 
their settled custom, by far the greater part of their number was 
absent during the winter months at the iisheries upon the Caspian. 
Some who were hable to surprise at the most exjDOsed points fled 
in crowds to the fortress of Koulagina,^ which was immediately 
invested and summoned by Oubacha. He had, however, in his 
train only a few light pieces of artillery ; and the Russian com- 
mandant at Koulagina, being aware of the hurried circumstances 
in which the khan was placed, and that he stood upon the very 
edge, as it were, of a renewed flight, felt encouraged by these 
considerations to a more obstinate resistance than nn'ght else 
have been advisable with an enemy so little disposed to observe 
the usages of civilized warfare. The period of his anxiety was not 
long. On the fifth day of the siege he descried from the walls a 
succession of Tartar couriers, mounted upon fleet Bactrian camels, 
crossing the vast plains around tlie fortress at a furious pace, and 
riding into the Kalmuck encampment at various points. Great 

1 About a hundred miles above the mouth of the Ural. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 45 

agitation appeared immediately to follow. Orders were soon 
after dispatched in all directions ; and it became speedily known 
that upon a distant flank of the Kalmuck movement a bloody and 
exterminating battle had been fought the day before, in which one 
entire tribe of the khan's dependents, numbering not less than nine 
thousand fighting men, had perished to the last man. This was 
the oiiloss, or clan, called Feka-Zcchorr, between whom and the 
Cossacks there was a feud of ancient standing. In selecting, 
therefore, the points of attack, on occasion of the present hasty 
inroad, the Cossack chiefs were naturally eager so to direct their 
efforts as to combine with the service .of the Empress some grati- 
fication to dieir own party hatreds, more especially as the pres- 
ent was likely to be their final opportunity for revenge, if the Kal- 
muck evasion ^ should prosper. Having, therefore, concentrated 
as large a body of Cossack cavalry as circumstances allowed, they 
attacked the hostile ouloss with a precipitation which denied to it 
all means for communicating with Oubacha ; for the necessity of 
commanding an ample range of pasturage, to meet the necessities 
of their vast flocks and herds, had separated this ouloss from the 
khan's headquarters by an interval of eighty miles : and thus it 
was, and not from oversight, that it came to be thrown entirely 
upon its own resources. These had proved insufficient. Retreat, 
from the exhausted state of their horses and camels, no less than 
from the prodigious incumbrances of their live stock, was abso- 
lutely out of the question. Quarter was disdained on the one 
side, and would not have be«n granted on the other; and thus it 
had happened that the setting sun of that one day (the thirteenth 
from the first opening of the revolt) threw his parting rays upon 
the final agonies of an ancient ouloss, stretched upon a bloody 
field, who on that day's dawning had held and styled themselves 
an independent nation. 

Universal consternation was diffused through the wide borders 
of the khan's encampment by this disastrous intelligence, not so 
much on account of the numbers slain, or the total extinction of 
1 Artful escape. 



46 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

a powerful ally, as because the position of the Cossack force was 
likely to put to hazard the future advances of the Kalmucks, or 
at least to retard and hold them in check until the heavier 
columns of the Russian army should arrive upon their flanks. 
The siege of Koulagina was instantly raised ; and that signal, so 
fatal to the happiness of the women and their children, once 
again resounded through the tents, — the signal for flight, and 
this time for a flight more rapid than ever. About one hundred 
and fifty miles ahead of their present position there arose a tract 
of hilly country, forming a sort of margin to the vast, sealike 
expanse of champaign savannas,^ steppes, and occasionally of 
sandy deserts, which stretched away on each side of this margin 
both eastwards and westwards. Pretty nearly in the center of 
this hilly range lay a narrow defile, through which passed the 
nearest and the most practicable route to the river Turgai,- the 
farther bank of which river offered the next great station of 
security for a general halt. It was the more essential to gain 
this pass before the Cossacks, inasmuch as not only would the 
delay in forcing the pass give time to the Russian pursuing 
columns for combining their attacks and for bringing up their 
artillery, but also because (even if all enemies in pursuit were 
thrown out of the question) it was held, by those best acquamted 
with the difficult and obscure geography of these pathless steppes, 
that the loss of this one narrow strait amongst the hills would 
have the effect of throwing them (as their only alternative in a 
case where so wide a sweep of pasturage was required) upon a 
circuit of at least five hundred miles extra ; besides that, after all, 
this circuitous route would carry them to the Turgai at a point ill 
fitted for the passage of their heavy baggage. The defile in the 
hills, therefore, it was resolved to gain ; and yet, unless they 
moved upon it with the velocity of light cavalry, there was little 
chance but it would be found preoccupied by the Cossacks. 

1 Both "champaign" and "savanna" describe a vast, open, treeless 
country. 

2 See Note 3, p. 16. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 47 

They, it is true, had suffered greatly in the recent sanguinary 
action with their enemies ; but the excitement of victory, and 
the intense sympathy with their unexampled triumph, had again 
swelled their ranks, and would probably act with the force of a 
vortex to draw in their simple countrymen from the Caspian. The 
question, therefore, of preoccupation was reduced to a race. The 
Cossacks were marching upon an oblique line not above fifty miles 
longer than that which led to the same point from the Kalmuck 
headquarters before Koulagina ; and therefore, without the most 
furious haste on the part of the Kalmucks, there was not a chance 
for them, burdened and " trashed " 1 as, they were, to anticipate so 
agile a light cavalry as the Cossacks in seizing this important pass. 
Dreadful were the feelings of the poor women on hearing this 
exposition of the case ; for they easily understood that too capi- 
tal an interest (the siininia rcruni ^) was now at stake to allow 
of any regard to minor interests, or what would be considered 
such in their present circumstances. The dreadful week already 
passed, their inauguration in misery, was yet fresh in their re- 
membrance. The scars of suffering were impressed not only upon 
their memories, but upon their very persons and the persons of 
their children ; and they knew that, where no speed had much 
chance of meeting the cravings of the chieftains, no test would 
be accepted, short of absolute exhaustion, that as much had been 
accomplished as could be accomplished. Weseloff, the Russian 
captive, has recorded the silent wretchedness with which the 
women and elder boys assisted in drawing the tent ropes. On 
the 5th of January all had been animation and the joyousness of 
indefinite expectation : now, on the contrary, a brief but bitter 
experience had taught them to take an amended calculation of 
what it was that lay before them. 

1 De Quincey's Note. — This is an expressive word, used by Beaumont 
and Fletcher in their Bonduca, etc., to describe the case of a person retarded 
and emljarrassed in flight or in pursuit by some incumbrance, whether thing 
or person, too valuable to be left behind. 

2 The chief of interests or things. 



48 THOMAS DE QUIiVCEY. 

One whole day, and far into the succeeding night, had the 
renewed flight continued. The sufferings had been greater than 
before ; for the cold had been more intense, and many perished 
out of the living creatures through every class except only the 
camels, whose powers of endurance seemed equally adapted to 
cold and heat. The second morning, however, brought an al- 
leviation to the distress. Snow had begun to fall ; and, though 
not deep at present, it was easily foreseen that it soon would be 
so, and that, as a halt would in that case become unavoidable, 
no plan could be better than that of staying where ihey were, 
especially as the same cause would check the advance of the 
Cossacks. Here, then, was the last interval of comfort which 
gleamed upon the unhappy nation during their whole migration. 
For ten days the snow continued to fall with little intermission. 
At the end of that time, keen, bright, frosty weather succeeded : 
the drifting had ceased. In three days the smooth expanse 
became firm enough to support the treading of the camels ; and 
the flight was recommenced. But during the halt much domestic 
comfort had been enjoyed, and, for the last time, universal 
plenty. The cows and oxen had perished in such vast numbers 
on the previous marches, that an order was now issued to turn 
what remained to account by slaughtering the whole, and salting 
whatever part should be found to exceed the immediate consump- 
tion. This measure led to a scene of general banqueting, and 
even of festivity, amongst all who were not inciipacitated for 
joyous emotions by distress of mind, by griff for the unhappy ex- 
perience of the few last davs, and by anxiety for the too gloomy 
future. Seventy thousand persons of all ages lunl already i)er- 
islied, exc'lusively of the many thousand ;illies who had I^een cut 
down by the Cossack sal)er ; and tlie losses in reversion ' were 
likely to be manv more ; for rumors began now to arrive from all 
quarters, by the mounted couriers whom the khan had dispatched 
to the rear and to each flank as well as in advance, that large 
masses of the imperial troops were converging from all parts of 

1 "In rcvLisiou " is a legal phrase meaning " for the remainder." 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 49 

Central Asia to the fords of the river Turgai, as the most con- 
venient point for intercepting the flying tribes ; and it was abready 
well known that a powerful division was close in their rear, and 
was retarded only by the numerous artillery which had been 
judged necessary to support their operations. New motives were 
thus daily arising for quickening the motions of the wretched 
Kalmucks and for exhausting those who were previously but too 
much exhausted. 

It was not until the second day of February that the khan's 
advanced guard came in sight of Ouchim,^ the defile among the 
hills of Moulgaldchares,2 in which they anticipated so bloody an 
opposition from the Cossacks. A pretty large body of these light 
cavalry had, in fact, preoccupied the pass by some houi's ; but the 
khan, having two great advantages, — namely, a strong body of 
infantry, who had been conveyed by sections of five on about two 
hundred camels, and some pieces of light artillery which he had 
not yet been forced to abandon, — soon began to make a serious 
impression upon this unsupported detachment, and they would 
probably at any rate have retired ; but, at the very moment when 
they were making some dispositions in that view, Zebek-Dorchi 
appeared upon their rear with a body of trained riflemen who 
had distinguished themselves in the war with Turkey. These 
men had contrived to crawl unobserved over the cliffs which 
skirted the ravine, availing themselves of the dry beds of the 
summer torrents, and other inequalities of the ground, to conceal 
their movement. Disorder and trepidation ensued instantly in 
the Cossack files. The khan, who had been waiting with the 
elite^ of his heavy cavalry, charged furiously upon them. Total 
overthrow followed to the Cossacks, and a slaughter such as in 
some measure avenged the recent bloody extermination of their 
allies, the ancient oiiloss of Feka-Zechorr. The slight horses of 

1 South of Tobolsk, on the river Irtish. 

2 Mugodschar Mountains, a southern extension of the Urals between the 
provinces of Uralsk and Turgansk. 

3 Choice body ; best part. 

4 



50 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

the Cossacks were unable to support the weight of heavy Poh'sh 
dragoons and a body of trained cameleers (that is, cuirassiers 
mounted on camels). Hardy they were, but not strong, nor a 
match for their antagonists in weight ; and their extraordinary 
efforts through the last few days to gain their present position 
had greatly diminished their powers for effecting an escape. 
Very few, in fact, did escape ; and the bloody day of Ouchim 
became as memorable amongst the Cossacks as that which, about 
twenty days before, had signalized the complete annihilation of 
the Feka-Zechorr.^ 

The road was now open to the river Igritch,^ and as yet even 
far beyond it to the Turgai ; but how long this state of things 
would continue was every day more doubtful. Certain intelligence 
was now received that a large Russian army, well appointed in 
every ami, was advancing upon the Turgai under the command 
of General Traubenberg. This officer was to be joined on his 
route by ten thousand Bashkirs and pretty nearly the same amount 
of Kirghises, — both hereditary enemies of the Kalmucks, both 
exasperated to a point of madness by the bloody trophies which 
Oubaclia and Momotbacha had in late years won from such of 
their compatriots as served under the Sultan. The Czarina's yoke 
these wild nations bore with submissive patience, but not the 

1 De Quincev's Note. — There was another oiiloss equally strong with 
that of Feka-Zechorr, viz., that of Erketunn, under the government of As- 
sarcho and Machi, whom some obligations of treaty or other hidden motives 
drew into the general conspiracy of revolt. But fortunately the two chieftains 
found means to assure the Governor of Astrachan, on the first outbreak of 
the insurrection, that their real wishes were for maintaining the old connec- 
tion with Russia. The Cossacks, therefore, to whom the pursuit was in- 
trusted, had instructions to act cautiously and according to circumstances 
on coming up with them. The result was, through the prudent management 
of Assarcho, that the clan, without compromising their pride or independence, 
made such moderate submissions as satisfied the Cossacks ; and eventually 
both chiefs and people received from the Czarina the rewards and honors of 
exemplary fidelity. 

8 A river near the center of the province of Turgai which receives the 
Turgai River, and loses itself in the Karakum Desert north of the Aral Sea. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 51 

hands by which it had been imposed ; and accordingly, catching 
witli eagerness at the present occasion offered to their vengeance, 
they sent an assurance to the Czarina of their perfect obechence 
to her commands, and at the same time a message significantly 
declaring in what spirit they meant to execute them, namely, 
" that they would not trouble her Majesty with prisoners." 

Here, then, arose, as before with the Cossacks, a race for the 
Kalmucks with the regular armies of Russia, and concurrently 
with nations as fierce and semihumanized as themselves ; besides 
that they were stung into threefold activity by the furies of morti- 
fied pride and military abasement under the eyes of the Turkish 
Sultan. The forces, and more especially the artillery, of Russia, 
were far too overwhelming to permit the thought of a regular 
opposition in pitched battles, even with a less dilapidated state 
of their resources than they could reasonably expect at the 
period of their arrival on the Turgai. In their speed lay their 
only hope, — in strength of foot, as before, and not in strength 
of arm. Onward, therefore, the Kalmucks pressed, marking the 
lines of their wide-extending march over the sad solitudes of 
the steppes by a never-ending chain of corpses. The old and the 
young, the sick man on his couch, the mother with her baby, — 
all were left behind. Sights such as these, with the many rueful 
aggravations incident to the helpless condition of infancy, — of 
disease and of female weakness abandoned to the wolves amidst 
a howling wilderness, — continued to track their course through a 
space of full two thousand miles ; for so much at the least it was 
likely to prove, including the circuits to which they were often 
compelled by rivers or hostile tribes, from the point of starting on 
the Volga until they could reach their destined halting ground 
on the east bank of the Turgai. For the first seven weeks of 
this march their sufferings had been imbittered by the excessive 
severity of the cold; and every night — so long as wood was to 
be had for fires, either from the lading of the camels, or from the 
desperate sacrifice of their baggage wagons, or (as occasionally 
happened) from the forests which skirted the banks of the many 



52 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

rivers which crossed their path — no spectacle was more frequent 
than that of a circle, composed of men, women, and children, 
gathered by hundreds round a central fire, all dead and stiff 
at the return of morning light. Myriads ^ were left behind from 
pure exhaustion, of whom none had a chance, under the com- 
bined evils which beset them, of surviving through the next 
twenty-four hours. Frost, however, and snow at length ceased 
to persecute ; the vast extent of the march at length brought them 
into more genial latitudes ; and the unusual duration of the march 
was gradually bringing them into the more genial seasons of the 
year. Two thousand miles had at least been traversed; February, 
March, April, were gone ; the balmy month of May had opened ; 
vernal sights and sounds came from every side to comfort the 
heart-weary travelers ; and at last, in the latter end of May, they 
crossed the Turgai, and took up a position where they hoped to 
iind liberty to repose themselves for many weeks in comfort as 
well as in security, and to draw such supplies from the fertile 
neighborhood as might restore their shattered forces to a condition 
for executing, with less of wreck and ruin, the large remainder of 
the journey. 

Yes, it was true that two thousand miles of wandering had 
been completed, but in a period of nearly five months, and with 
the terrific sacrifice of at least two hundred and fifty thousand 
souls, to say nothing of herds and flocks past all reckoning. 
These had all perished, — ox, cow, horse, mule, ass, sheep, or 
goat: not one survived, — only the camels. These arid and 
adust - creatures, looking like the mummies of some antediluvian 
animals, without the affections or sensibilities of flesh and blood, 
— these only still erected their speaking eyes to the eastern heav- 
ens, and had to all appearance come out from this long tempest 
of trial unscathed and unharmed. The khan, knowing how 
much he was individually answerable for the misery which had 
been sustained, must have wept tears even more bitter than those 
of Xerxes when he threw his eyes over the myriads wlujm he had 
1 Many. ^ Luoking as if scorched. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 53 

assembled;^ for the tears of Xerxes were unmingled with com- 
punction. Whatever amends were in his power he resolved to 
make by sacrifices to the general good of all personal regards ; 
and accordingly, even at this point of their advance, he once 
more deliberately brought under review the whole question of the 
revolt. The question was formally debated before the council, 
whether, even at this point, they should untread their steps, and, 
throwing themselves upon the Czarina's mercy, return to their old 
allegiance. In that case, Oubacha professed himself willing to 
become the scapegoat - for the general transgression. This, he 
argued, was no fantastic scheme, but even easy of accomplish- 
ment ; for the unlimited and sacred power of the khan, so well 
known to the Empress, made it absolutely iniquitous to attribute 
any separate responsibility to the people. Upon the khan rested 
the guilt ; upon the khan would descend the imperial vengeance. 
This proposal was applauded for its generosity, but was ener- 
getically opposed by Zebek-Dorchi. Were they to lose the whole 
journey of two thousand miles ? Was their misery to perish 
without fruit ? True it was that they had yet reached only the 
halfway house; but in that respect the motives were evenly 
balanced for retreat or for advance. Either way they would 
have pretty nearly the same distance to traverse, but with this 
difference, — that, forwards, their route lay through lands com- 
paratively fertile ; backwards through a blasted wilderness, rich 
only in memorial of their sorrow, and hideous to Kalmuck eyes 
by the trophies of their calamity. Besides, though the Empress 

1 " When he saw all the Hellespont crowded with ships, and all the points 
and plains of Abydos filled with men, then Xerxes thought himself liappy. 
But afterwards he wept. Now Artabanus his uncle, who had at first openly 
opposed Xerxes' expedition against Greece, — this man, when he beheld 
Xerxes in tears, said, ' How diflferently you do, O King, from a little while 
ago: you weep because you are happy.' And the King answered, ' It came 
upon me as I looked down over these men, and thought how short is the life 
of man ; for of all here collected no one will be alive a hundred years hence.' " 
— Herodotus, VII. xlv., xlvi. 

2 See Lev. xvi. 



54 THOMAS DE QUINCE Y. 

might accept an excuse for the past, would she the less forbear to 
suspect for the future ? The Czarina's /^^r^^// they might obtain ; 
but could they ever hope to recover \\tx confidence ? Doubtless 
there would now be a standing presumption against them, an 
immortal ground of jealousy; and a jealous government would 
be but another name for a harsh one. Finally, whatever motives 
there ever had been for the revolt surely remained unimpaired by 
anything that had occurred. In reality the revolt was, after all, 
no revolt, but, strictly speaking, a return to their old allegiance; 
since not above one hundred and fifty years ago, namely, in the 
year 1616, their ancestors had revolted from the Emperor of 
China. They had now tried both governments; and for them 
China was the land of promise, and Russia the house of bondage. 
Spite, however, of all that Zebek could say or do, the yearning 
of the people was strongly in behalf of the khan's proposal, — the 
pardon of their prince, they persuaded themselves, would be 
readily conceded by the Empress ; and there is little doubt that 
they would at this time have thrown themselves gladly upon the 
imperial mercv, — when suddenly all was defeated by the arrival 
of two envoys from Traubenberg. This general had reached the 
fortress of Orsk,^ after a very painful march, on the 12th of 
April ; thence he set forwards towards Oriembourg,- which he 
reached upon the ist of June, having been joined on his route, 
at various times through the month of May, by the Kirghises and 
a corps of ten thousand Bashkirs. From Oriembourg he sent 
forward his ofiicial offers to the khan, which were harsh and 
peremptory, holding out no specific stipulations as to pardon or 
impunity, and exacting unconditional submission as the pre- 
liminary price of any cessation from military operations. The 
personal character of Traubenberg, which was anything but 
energetic, and the condition of his army, disorganized in a great 
measure by the length and severity of the march, made it proba- 

1 A fortress upon the frontier of Russia. 

2 Fort Orenburg is east of the center of Turgai, and capital of a province 
of the same name. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 55 

ble, that, with a Httle time for negotiation, a more concih'atory 
tone would have been assumed. But, unhappily for all parties, 
sinister events occurred in the meantime, such as effectually put 
an end to every hope of the kind. 

The two envoys sent forward by Traubenberg had reported 
to this officer that a distance of only ten days' march lay between 
his own headquarters and those of the khan. Upon this fact 
transpiring, the Kirghises, by their prince Nourali, and the 
Bashkirs, entreated the Russian general to advance without 
delay. Once having placed his cannon in position, so as to 
command the Kalmuck camp, the fate of the rebel khan and his 
people would be in his own hands, and they would themselves 
form his advanced guard. Traubenberg, however, — it']iy has 
not been certainly explained, — refused to march, grounding his 
refusal upon the condition of his army and their absolute need of 
refreshment. Long and fierce was the altercation ; but at length, 
seeing no chance of prevailing, and dreading above all other 
events the escape of their detested enemy, the ferocious Bashkirs 
went off in a body by forced marches. In six days they reached 
the Turgai, crossed by swimming their horses, and fell upon the 
Kalmucks, who were dispersed for many a league in search of 
food or provender for their camels. The first day's action was 
one vast succession of independent skirmishes diffused over a 
field of thirty to forty miles in extent ; one party often breaking 
up into three or four, and again (according to the accidents of 
groimd) three or four blending into one ; flight and ptu^suit, 
rescue and total overthrow, going on simultaneously, under all 
varieties of form, in all quarters of the plain. The Bashkirs had 
found themselves obliged, by the scattered state of the Kalmucks, 
to split up into innumerable sections ; and thus, for some hours, 
it had been impossible for the most practiced eye to collect the 
general tendency of the day's fortune. Both the khan and 
Zebek-Dorchi were at one moment made prisoners, and more 
than once in imminent danger of being cut down ; but at length 
Zebek succeeded in rallying a strong column of infantry, which, 



56 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

with the support of the camel corps on each flank, compelled the 
Bashkirs to retreat. Clouds, however, of these wild cavalry, 
continued to arrive through the next two days and nights, fol- 
lowed or accompanied by the Kirghises. These being viewed 
as the advanced parties of Traubenberg's army, the Kalmuck 
chieftains saw no hope of safety but in flight ; and in this way 
it happened that a retreat which had so recently been brought to 
a pause, was resumed at the very moment when the unhappy 
fugitives were anticipating a deep repose, without further molesta- 
tion, the whole summer through. 

It seemed as though every variety of wretchedness were pre- 
destined to the Kalmucks, and as if their sufferings were incom- 
plete unless they were rounded and matured by all that the most 
dreadful agencies of summer's heat could superadd to those of 
frost and winter. To this sequel of their story we shall imme- 
diately revert, after first noticing a little romantic episode which 
occurred at this point between Oubacha and his unprincipled 
cousin Zebek-Dorchi. 

There was, at the time of the Kalmuck flight from the Volga, a 
Russian gentleman of some rank at the court of the khan, whom 
for political reasons it was thought necessary to carry along with 
them as a captive. For some weeks his confinement had been 
very strict, and in one or two instances cruel ; but as the increas- 
ing distance was continually diminishing the chances of escape, 
and perhaps, also, as the misery of the guards gradually withdrew 
their attention from all minor interests to their own personal 
sufferings, the vigilance of the custody grew more and more re- 
laxed, until at length, upon a petition to the khan, Mr. Weseloff 
was formally restored to hberty ; and it was understood that he 
might use his liberty in whatever way he chose, even for return- 
ing to Russia, if that should be his wish. Accordingly, he was 
making active preparations for his journey to St. Petersburg, 
when it occurred to Zebek-Dorchi that not improbably, in some 
of the battles which w^ere then anticipated with Traubenberg, it 
might happen to them to lose some prisoner of rank, in which 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 57 

case the Russian Weseloff would be a pledge in their hands for 
negotiating an exchange. Upon this plea, to his own severe 
affliction, the Russian was detained until the further pleasure 
of the khan. The khan's name, indeed, was used through the 
whole affair, but, as it seemed, with so little concurrence on his 
part, that when Weseloff in a private audience humbly remon- 
strated upon the injustice done him, and the cruelty of thus 
sporting with his feelings by setting him at liberty, and, as it 
were, tempting him into dreams of home and restored happiness, 
only for the purpose of blighting them, the good-natured prince 
disclaimed all participation in the affair, and went so far in 
proving his sincerity as even to give him permission to effect his 
escape ; and, as a ready means of commencing it without rais- 
ing suspicion, the khan mentioned to Mr. Weseloff that he had 
just then received a message from the hetman ^ of the Bashkirs, 
soliciting a private interview on the banks of the Turgai at a spot 
pointed out. That interview was arranged for the coming night ; 
and Mr. Weseloff might go in the khan's suite,- which on either 
side was not to exceed three persons. Weseloff was a prudent 
man, acquainted with the world, and he read treachery in the 
very outline of this scheme as stated by the khan, — treachery 
against the khan's person. He mused a little, and then com- 
municated so much of his suspicions to the khan as might put 
him on his guard ; but, upon further consideration, he begged 
leave to decline the honor of accompanying the khan. The fact 
was, that three Kalmucks, who had strong motives for returning 
to their countrymen on the west bank of the Volga, guessing the 
intentions of Weseloff, had offered to join him in his escape. 
These men the khan would probably find himself obliged to 
countenance in their project ; so that it became a point of honor 
with Weseloff to conceal their intentions, and therefore to ac- 
complish the evasion from the camp (of which the first step only 
would be hazardous) without risking the notice of the khan. 
The district in which they were now encamped abounded 
1 Chief. 2 Comp.iny of followers ; train. 



5^ THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

through many hundred miles with wild horses of a docile and 
beautiful breed. Each of the four fugitives had caught from 
seven to ten of these spirited creatures in the course of the 
last few days. This raised no suspicion ; for the rest of the Kal- 
mucks had been making the same sort of provision against the 
coming toils of their remaining route to China. These horses 
were secured by halters, and hidden about dusk in the thickets 
which lined the margin of the river. To these thickets, about 
ten at night, the four fugitives repaired. They took a circuitous 
path which drew them as little as possible within danger of chal- 
lenge from any of the outposts or of the patrols which had been 
estabhshed on the quarters where the Bashkirs lay, and in three 
quarters of an hour they reached the rendezvous. The moon 
had now risen ; the horses were unfastened ; and they were in 
the act of mounting, when the deep silence of the woods was dis- 
turbed by a violent uproar and the clasliing of arms. Weseloff 
fancied that he heard the voice of the khan shouting for assist- 
ance. He remembered the communication made by that prince 
in the morning, and, requesting his companions to support him, 
he rode off in the direction of the sound. A very short distance 
brought him to an open glade in the wood, where he beheld four 
men contending with a party of at least nine or ten. Two of the 
four were dismounted at the very instant of Weseloff's arrival. 
One of these he recognized almost certainly as the khan, who 
was fighting hand to hand, but at great disadvantage, with two 
of the adverse horsemen. Seeing that no time was to be lost, 
Weseloff fired, and brought down one of the two. His compan- 
ions discharged their carbines at the same moment ; and then all 
rushed simultaneously into the little open area. The thundering 
sound of about thirty horses, all rushing at once into a narrow 
space, gave the impression that a whole troop of cavalry was 
coming down upon the a.ssailants, who accordingly wheeled about 
and fled with one impulse. Weseloff advanced to the dismounted 
cavalier, who, as he expected, proved to be the khan. The man 
whom Weseloff had shot was lying dead ; and both were shocked, 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 59 

though Weseloff at least was not surprised, on stooping down, 
and scrutinizing his features, to recognize a well-known confiden- 
tial servant of Zebek-Dorchi. Nothing was said by either party. 
The khan rode off, escorted by Weseloff and his companions ; 
and for some time a dead silence prevailed. The situation of 
Weselofif was delicate and critical. To leave the khan at this 
point was probably to cancel their recent services ; for he might 
be again crossed on his path, and again attacked by the very 
party from whom he had just been delivered. Yet, on the other 
hand, to return to the camp was to endanger the chances of ac- 
complishing the escape. The khan, also, was apparently revolv- 
ing all this in his mind ; for at length he broke silence, and said, 
" I comprehend your situation, and under other circumstances I 
might feel it my duty to detain your companions ; but it would 
ill become me to do so after the important service you have just 
rendered me. Let us turn a little to the left. There, where you 
see the watchfire, is an outpost. Attend me so far. I am then 
safe. You may turn, and pursue your enterprise ; for the circum- 
stances under which you will appear as my escort are sufficient to 
shield you from all suspicion for the present. I regret having no 
better means at my disposal for testifying my gratitude. But tell 
me, before we part, was it accident only which led you to my 
rescue? or had you acquired any knowledge of the plot by which 
I was decoyed into this snare ? " Weseloff answered very can- 
didly that mere accident had brought him to the spot at^ which 
he heard the uproar ; but that having heard it, and connecting it 
with the khan's communication of the morning, he had then de- 
signedly gone after the sound in a way which he certainly should 
not have done at so critical a moment, unless in the expectation 
of finding the khan assaulted by assassins. A few minutes after, 
they reached the outpost at which it became safe to leave the 
Tartar chieftain ; and immediately the four fugitives commenced 
a flight which is, perhaps, without a parallel in the annals of 
traveling. Each of them led six or seven horses besides the one 
he rode; and by shifting from one to the other, like the ancient 



6o THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

dcsultors 1 of the Roman circus, so as never to burden the same 
horse for more than half an hour at a time, they continued to 
advance at the rate of two hundred miles in the twenty-four 
hours for three days consecutively. After that time, considering 
themselves beyond pursuit, they proceeded less rapidly, though 
still with a velocity which staggered the belief of WeseloflF's friends 
in after years. He was, however, a man of high principle, and 
always adhered firmly to the details of his printed report. One 
of the circumstances there stated is, that they continued to pur- 
sue the route by which the Kalmucks had fled, never for an in- 
stant finding any difficulty in tracing it by the skeletons and 
other memorials of their calamities. In particular, he mentions 
vast heaps of money as part of the valuable property which it 
had been necessary to sacrifice. These heaps were found lying 
still untouched in the deserts. From these, Weseloff and his com- 
panions took as much as they could conveniently carry ; and this 
it was, with the price of their beautiful horses (which they after- 
wards sold at one of the Russian military settlements for about 
fifteen pounds apiece), which eventually enabled them to pursue 
their journey in Russia. This journey, as regarded Weseloff in 
particular, was closed by a tragical catastrophe. He was at that 
time young, and the only child of a doting mother. Her afflic- 
tion under the violent abduction of her son had been e.\cessive, 
and probably had undermined her constitution. Still she had 
supported it. Weseloff, giving way to the natural impulses of his 
filial affection, had imprudently posted through Russia to his 
mother's house without w^arning of his approach. He rushed 
precipitately into her presence ; and she, who had stood the 
shocks of sorrow, was found unequal to the shock of joy too 
sudden and too acute. She died upon the .spot. 

We now revert to the final scenes of the Kalmuck flight. 
These it would be useless to pursue circumstantially through the 
whole two thousand miles of suffering which remained ; for the 

1 Vaulters, or circus riders who leaped from horse to horse without slack- 
ing speed. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 6i 

character of that suffering was even more monotonous than on 
the former half of the flight, but also more severe. Its main ele- 
ments were excessive heat, with the accompaniments of famine 
and thirst, but aggravated at every step by the murderous attacks 
of their cruel enemies, the Bashkirs and the Kirghises. 

These people, "more fell ^ than anguish, hunger, or the sea," 
stuck to the unhappy Kalmucks like a swarm of enraged hornets ; 
and very often, whilst they were attacking them in the rear, their 
advanced parties and flanks were attacked with almost equal fury 
by the people of the country which they were traversing; and 
with good reason, since the law of -self-preservation had now 
obliged the fugitive Tartars to plunder provisions and to forage 
wherever they passed. In this respect their condition was a con- 
stant oscillation 2 of wretchedness ; for sometimes, pressed by 
grinding famine, they took a circuit of perhaps a hundred miles 
in order to strike into a land rich in the comforts of life. But in 
such a land they were sure to find a crowded population, of which 
every arm was raised in unrelenting hostility, with all the advan- 
tages of local knowledge, and with constant preoccupation of all 
the defensible positions, mountain passes, or bridges. Sometimes, 
again, wearied out with this mode of suffering, they took a circuit 
of perhaps a hundred miles in order to strike into a land with few 
or no inhabitants ; but in such a land they were sure to meet 
absolute starvation. Then, again, whether with or without this 
plague of starvation, whether with or without this plague of 
hostility in' front, whatever might be the " fierce varieties " of 
their misery in this respect, no rest ever came to their unhappy 
rear ; post equitein sedet atra cura; ^ it was a torment hke the 
undying worm'^ of conscience, and upon the whole it presented 
a spectacle altogether unprecedented in the history of mankind. 

1 -Fierce. The quotation is from Othello, act v. sc. 2. 

2 A swinging, like that of a pendulum. 

3 " Behind the horseman sits dark care." The quotation is from Horace, 
Ode iii. 37. 

■4 Means here " gnawing, remorse." De Quincey may have had Shake- 



62 THOMAS DE QUINCE V. 

Private and personal malignity is not unfrequently immortal ; but 
rare indeed is it to find the same pertinacity of malice in a nation. 
And what imbittered the interest was, that the malice was re- 
ciprocal. Thus far the parties met upon equal terms ; but that 
equality only sharpened the sense of their dire inequality as to 
other circumstances. The Bashkirs were ready to fight "from 
morn to dewy eve." i The Kalmucks, on the contrary, were 
always obliged to run. Was it from their enemies as creatures 
whom they feared? No, but towards their friends, — towards that 
final haven of China, — as what was hourly implored by their 
wives and the tears of their children. But, though they fled 
unwillingly, too often they fled in vain, being unwillingly recalled. 
There lay the torment. Every day the Bashkirs fell upon them ; 
every day the same unprofitable battle was renewed. As a mat- 
ter of course, the Kalmucks recalled part of their advanced guard 
to fight them. Every day the battle raged for hours, and uni- 
formly with the same result; for, no sooner did the Bashkirs find 
themselves too heavily pressed, and that the Kalmuck march had 
been retarded by some hours, than they retired into the boundless 
deserts, where all pursuit was hopeless. But if the Kalmucks 
resolved to press forward, regardless of their enemies, in that case 
their attacks became so fierce and overwhelming that the general 
safety seemed likely to be brought into question ; nor could any 
effectual remedy be applied to the case, even for each separate 
day, except by a most embarrassing halt and by countermarches 
that to men in their circumstances were almost worse than 
death. It will not be surprising that the irritation of such a 
systematic persecution, superadded to a previous and hereditary 
hatred, and accompanied by the stinging consciousness of utter 
impotence as regarded all effectual vengeance, should gradually 
have inflamed the Kalmuck animosity into the wildest expres- 
sion of downright madness and frenzy. Indeed, long before the 

speare's sentence in Riclianl III. in mind, — " The ivorin of conscience still 
begnaw tliy soul! " 

1 See Paradise Lost, I. 743. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 63 

frontiers of China were approached, the hostih'ty of both sides had 
assumed the appearance much more of a warfare amongst wild 
beasts than amongst creatures acknowledging the restraints of 
reason or the claims of a common nature. The spectacle became 
too atrocious : it was that of a host of lunatics pursued by a host 
of fiends. 

On a fine morning in early autumn of the year 1771, Kien 
Long, the Emperor of China, was pursuing his amusements in 
a wild frontier district lying on the outside of the Great Wall. 
For many hundred square leagues the country was desolate of 
inhabitants, but rich in woods of ancient growth, and overrun 
with game of every description. In a central spot of this solitary 
region the Emperor had built a gorgeous hunting lodge, to which 
he resorted annually for recreation, and relief from the cares of 
government. Led onwards in pursuit of game, he had rambled 
to a distance of two hundred miles or more from this, lodge, fol- 
lowed at a little distance by a sufficient military escort, and every 
night pitching his tent in a different situation, until at length he 
had arrived on the very margin of the vast central deserts of 
Asia.i Here he was standing, by accident, at an opening of his 
pavilion, enjoying the morning sunshine, when suddenly to the 
westward there arose a A^ast, cloudy vapor, which by degrees 
expanded, mounted, and seemed to be slowly diffusing itself over 
the whole face of the heavens. By and by this vast sheet of 
mist began to thicken towards the horizon, and to roll forward 
in billowy volumes. The Emperor's suite assembled from all 
quarters ; the silver trumpets were sounded in the rear ; and fiom 
all the glades and forest avenues began to trot forward towards 
the pavihon the yagers "-^ — half cavalry, half huntsmen — who 

1 De Quincey's Note. — All the circumstances are learned from a long 
state, paper upon the subject of this Kalmuck migration, drawn up in the 
Chinese language by the Emperor himself. Parts of this paper have been 
translated by the Jesuit missionaries. The Emperor states the whole mo- 
tives of his conduct and the chief incidents at great length. 

2 De Quincey's use and definition of the word would lead one to suppose 



64 THOMAS DE QUINCE Y. 

composed the imperial escort. Conjecture was on the stretch to 
divine the cause of this phenomenon ; and the interest continu- 
ally increased in proportion as simple curiosity gradually deep- 
ened into the anxiety of uncertain danger. At first it had been 
imagined that some vast troops of deer or other wild animals 
of the chase had been disturbed in their forest haunts by the 
Emperor's movements, or possibly by wild beasts prowling for 
prey, and might be fetching a compass ^ by way of reentering the 
forest grounds at some remoter points secure from molestation. 
But this conjecture was dissipated by the slow increase of the cloud 
and the steadiness of its motion. In the course of two hours the 
vast phenomenon had advanced to a point which was judged to 
be within five miles of the spectators ; though all calculations of 
distance were difficult, and often fallacious, when applied to the 
endless expanses of the Tartar deserts. Through the next hour, 
during which the gentle morning breeze had a little freshened, the 
dusty vapor had developed itself far and wide into the appearance 
of huge aerial draperies, hanging in mighty volumes from the sky 
to the earth ; and at particular points, where the eddies of the 
breeze acted upon the pendulous- skirts of these aerial curtains, 
rents were perceived, sometimes taking the form of regular 
arches, portals, and windows, through which began dimly to 
gleam the heads of camels " indorsed "'^ with human beings, and 
at intervals the moving of men and horses in tumultuous array, 
and then through other openings, or vistas, at far-distant points, 
the flashing of polished arms. But sometimes, as the wind 
slackened or died away, all those openings, of whatever form, in 
the cloudy pall, would slowly close, and for a time the whole 

it Chinese. It is, however, from the German jdger (" huntsman "), and it 
describes a light infantry, made up of foresters, which was formerly used in 
German armies. 

1 " Fetching a compass" is an old English phrase for "making a cir- 
cuit." 

'^ Hanging ; swinging. 

3 De Quincky's Note. — "And elephants indorsed with towers." — 
Milton : Paradise Regained, III. 329. 



REJ-OLT OF THE TARTARS. 65 

pageant was shut up from view ; although the growing din, the 
clamors, the shrieks and groans ascending from infuriated mj'riads, 
reported, in a language not to be misunderstood, what was going 
on behind the cloudy screen. 

It was, in fact, the Kalmuck host, now in the last extremities 
of their exhaustion, and very fast approaching to that final stage 
of privation and intense misery beyond which few or none could 
have lived, but also, happily for themselves, fast approaching (in 
a literal sense) that final stage of their long pilgrimage at which 
they would meet hospitality on a scale of royal magnificence, and 
full protection from their enemies. These enemies, however, as 
yet, still were hanging on their rear as fiercely as ever, though 
this' day was destined to be the last of their hideous persecu- 
tion. The khan had, in fact, sent forward couriers with all the 
requisite statements and petitions, addressed to the Emperor of 
China. These had been duly received, and preparations made 
in consequence to welcome the Kalmucks with the most paternal 
benevolence. But as these couriers had been dispatched from 
the Turgai at the moment of arrival thither, and before the ad- 
vance of Traubenberg had made it necessary for the khan to 
order a hasty renewal of the flight, the Emperor had not looked 
for their arrival on their frontier until full three months after 
the present time. The khan had, indeed, expressly notified his 
intention to pass the summer heats on the banks of the Turgai, 
and to recommence his retreat about the beginning of September. 
The subsequent change of plan, being unknown to Kien Long, 
left him for some time in doubt as to the true interpretation to 
be put upon this mighty apparition in the desert ; but at length 
the savage clamors of hostile fury and the clangor of weapons 
unveiled to the Emperor the true nature of those unexpected 
calamities which had so prematurely precipitated the Kalmuck 
measure. 

Apprehending the real state of affairs, the Emperor instantly 
perceived that the first act of his fatherly care for these erring 
children (as he esteemed them), now returning to their ancient 

5 



66 THOMAS DE QCIXCEY. 

obedience, must be to deliver them from their pm'suers. And 
this was less difficult than might have been supposed. Not many- 
miles in the rear was a body of well-appointed cavalry, with a 
strong detachment of artillery, who always attended the Emperor's 
motions. These were hastily summoned. Meantime it occurred 
to the train of courtiers that some danger might arise to the 
Emperor's person from the proximity of a lawless enemy ; and 
accordingly he was induced to retire a little to the rear. It soon 
appeared, however, to those who Avatched the vapory shroud in 
the desert, that its motion was not such as would argue the 
direction of the march to be exactly upon the pavilion, but rather 
in a diagonal Hne, making an angle of full forty-five degrees with 
that line in which the imperial cortege ^ had been standing, and 
therefore with a distance continually increasing. Those who 
knew the country judged that the Kalmucks were making for a 
large fresh-water lake about seven or eight miles distant. They 
Avere right ; and to that point the imperial cavalry was ordered 
up ; and it was precisely in that spot, and about three hours after, 
and at noonday, on the 8th of September, that the great exodus 
of the Kalmuck Tartars was brought to a final close, and with a 
scene of such memorable and hellish fury as formed an appro- 
priate winding up to an expedition in all its parts and details so 
awfully disastrous. The Emperor was not personally present, or 
at least he saw whatever he did see from too great a distance to 
discriminate its individual features; but he records in his written 
memorial the report made to him of this scene by some of his 
own officers. 

The Lake of Tengis,^ near the frightful Desert of Kobi, lay in 
a hollow amongst hills of a moderate height, ranging generally 
from two to three thousand feet high. About eleven o'clock in 
the forenoon the Chinese cavalrv reached the summit of a road 
which led through a cradle-like dip in the mountains right down 
upon the margin of the lake. From this pass, elevated about 

1 Company of followers; train of attendants. 

2 Lake Balkash. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 67 

two thousand feet above the level of the water, they continued 
to descend, by a very winding and difficult road, for an hour and 
a half; and during the whole of this descent they were compelled 
to be inactive spectators of the fiendish spectacle below. The 
Kalmucks, reduced by this time from about six hundred thousand 
souls to two hundred thousand, and after enduring for two 
months and a half the miseries we have previously described, — 
outrageous heat, famine, and the destroying scimiter of the 
Kirghises and the Bashkirs, — had for the last ten days been 
traversing a hideous desert, where no vestiges were seen of 
vegetation, and no drop of water could be found. Camels and 
men were already so o^'erladen that it was a mere impossibility 
that they should carry a tolerable sufficiency for the passage of 
this frightful wilderness. On the eighth day the wretched daily 
allowance, which had been continually diminishing, failed en- 
tirely ; and thus, for two days of insupportable fatigue, the horrors 
of thirst had been carried to the fiercest extremity. Upon this 
last morning, at the sight of the hills and the forest scenery, which 
announced to those who acted as guides the neighborhood of the 
Lake of Tengis, all the people rushed along with maddening 
eagerness to the anticipated solace. The day grew hotter and 
hotter, the people more and more exhausted ; and gradually, in 
the general rush forwards to the lake, all discipline and command 
were lost : all attempts to preserve a rearguard were neglected. 
The wild Bashkirs rode in amongst the encumbered people, and 
slaughtered them by wholesale and almost without resistance. 
Screams and tumultuous shouts proclaimed the progress of the 
massacre ; but none heeded, none halted : all alike, pauper or 
noble, continued to rush on with maniacal haste to the waters, — 
all with faces blackened by the heat preying upon the liver, and 
with tongue drooping from the mouth. The cruel Bashkir was 
affected by the same misery, and manifested the same symptoms 
of his misery, as the wretched Kalmuck. The murderer was 
oftentimes in the same frantic misery as his murdered victim. 
Many, indeed (an ordinary effect of thirst), in both nations, had 



6S THOMAS DE QUIXCEY. 

become lunatic ; and in this state, whilst mere multitude and con- 
densation of bodies alone opposed any check to the destroying 
scimiter and the trampling hoof, the lake was reached ; and to 
that the whole vast body of enemies rushed, and together con- 
tinued to rush, forgetful of all things at that moment but of one 
almighty instinct. This absorption of the thoughts in one mad- 
dening appetite lasted for a single minute ; but in the next arose 
the final scene of parting vengeance. Far and wide the waters 
of the solitary lake were instantly dyed red with blood and gore. 
Here rode a party of savage Bashkirs, hewing off heads as fast as 
the swaths fall before the mower's scythe ; there stood unarmed 
Kalmucks in a death grapple with their detested foes, both up to 
the middle in water, and oftentimes both sinking together below 
the surface, from weakness or from struggles, and perishing in 
each other's arms. Did the Bashkirs at any point collect into a 
cluster for the sake of giving impetus ^ to the assault, thither were 
the camels driven in fiercely by those who rode them, generally 
women or boys ; and even these quiet creatures were forced into 
a share in this carnival of murder by trampling down as many as 
they could strike prostrate with the lash of their fore legs. Every 
moment the water grew more polluted ; and yet every moment 
fresh myriads came up to the lake, and rushed in, not able to re- 
sist their frantic thirst, and swallowing large draughts of water visi- 
bly contaminated with the blood of their slaughtered compatriots. 
Wheresoever the lake was shallow enough to allow of men raising 
their heads above the water, there, for scores of acres, were to be 
seen all forms of ghastly fear, of agonizing struggle, of spasm, of 
convulsion, of mortal conflict, — death, and the fear of death; 
revenge, and the lunacy of revenge ; hatred, and the frenzy of 
hatred ; until the neutral spectators, of whom there were not a 
few, now descending the eastern side of the lake, at length 
averted their eyes in horror. This horror, which seemed incapa- 
ble of further addition, was, however, increased by an unexpected 
incident. The Bashkirs, beginning to perceive here and there 

1 Energy of motion. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 69 

the approach of the Chinese cavalry, felt it prudent, wheresoever 
they were sufficiently at leisure from the passions of the mur- 
derous scene, to gather into bodies. This was noticed by the 
governor of a small Chinese fort built upon an eminence above 
the lake ; and immediately he threw in a broadside, which spread 
havoc amongst the Bashkir tribe. As often as the Bashkirs col- 
lected into "globes'''' and " iurms" ^ as their only means of meet- 
ing the long line of descending Chinese cavalry, so often did the 
Chinese governor of the fort pour in his exterminating broadside; 
until at length the lake, at the lower end, became one vast 
seething caldron of human bloodshed and carnage. The Chinese 
cavalry had reached the foot of the hills ; the Bashkirs, attentive 
to t/teir movements, had formed ; skirmishes had been fought ; 
and with a quick sense that the contest was henceforward rapidly 
becoming hopeless, the Bashkirs and Kirghises began to retire. 
The pursuit was not as vigorous as the Kalmuck hatred would 
have desired ; but at the same time the very gloomiest hatred 
could not but find in their own dreadful experience of the Asiatic 
deserts, and in the certainty that these wretched Bashkirs had to 
repeat that same experience a second time, for thousands of 
miles, as the price exacted by a retributory ^ Providence for their 
vindictive cruelty, — not the very gloomiest of the Kalmucks, or 
the least reflecting, but found in all this a retaliatory chastisement 
more complete and absolute than any which their swords and lances 
could have obtained, or human vengeance could have devised. 

Here ends the tale of the Kalmuck wanderings in the desert ; 
for any subsequent marches which awaited them were neither long 
nor painful. Every possible alleviation and refreshment for their 
exhausted bodies had been already pi-ovided by Kien Long with 
the most princely munificence ; and lands of great fertility were 

1 " Globe " is from the Latin globus (" a ball, throng, crowd, company "). 
" Turm " is from the Latin hti-tna (" a troop "). De Quincey doubtless itali- 
cized with quotation marks because such use of the words is Miltonic. 

2 Conferring punishment, or reward, according to desert. 



70 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

immediately assigned to them in ample extent along the river Ily,' 
not very far from the point at which they had first emerged from 
the wilderness of Kobi. But the beneficent attention of the 
Chinese Emperor may be best stated in his own words, as trans- 
lated into French by one of the Jesuit missionaries : " La nation 
des Torgotes {savoir les Kalmuqiies) arriva a Ily, toute delah-ee, 
n'ayant ni de quoi vivre, ni de quoi se vetir. Je I'avais prevu ; et 
j'avais ordonne de faire en tout genre les provisions necessaires 
pour pouvoir les secourir promptement ; c'est ce qui a ete execute. 
On a fait la division des terres ; et on a assigne a chaque famille 
une portion suffisante pour pouvoir servir a son entretien, soit en 
la cultivant, soit en y nourissant des bestiaux. On a donne ^ 
chaque particulier des etoffes pour I'habiller, des grains pour se 
nourrir pendant I'espace d'une annee, des ustensiles pour le me- 
nage et d'autres choses necessaires : et outre cela phisieurs onces 
d'argent, pour se pourvoir de ce qu'on aurait pu oubh'er. On a 
designe des lieux particuliers, fertiles en paturages ; et on leur a 
donne des boeufs, moutons, etc., pour qu'ils pussent dans la suite 
travailler par enx-memes "k leur entretien et a leur bienetre." - 
These are the words of the Emperor himself, speaking in his 

1 A river flowing northwest into Lake Balkash, Denges, or Tengis, on 
the frontier of Siberia. 

2 The nation of the Torgouths, namely, the Kalmucks, came to the Ily 
wholly shattered, having nothing upon which to live, nor anything to put on. 
I had foreseen this, and I had ordered the making of every sort of preparation 
for their immediate relief ; which had been done. A distribution of lands was 
made ; and each family was given a portion sufficient for its keeping, whether 
by cultivation or by feeding cattle. There was given to each individual, stuff 
for his clothing, grain to keep him for the space of a year, utensils for the 
household, and other things necessary, and, besides this, several ounces of 
silver for his use upon anything which had been forgotten. Special places 
fertile for pasture were marked out for them ; and cattle and sheep were 
given them in order that they might in the future work for their own sup- 
port and well being. 

"This paragraph," says Professor Masson, "is the French translation 
of a note of Kien Long, which De Quincey took from tlie book of the Ger- 
man traveler Bergmann." 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 71 

own person of his own paternal cares ; but another Chinese, 
treating the same subject, records the munificence of this prince 
in terms which proclaim still more forcibly the disinterested gen- 
erosity which prompted, and the delicate considerateness which 
conducted, this extensive bounty. He has been speaking of the 
Kalmucks, and he goes on thus: " Lorsqu'ils arriverent sur nos 
frontieres (au nombre de plusieurs centaines de mille, quoique la 
fatigue extreme, la faim, la soif, et toutes les autres incommodites 
inseparables d'une tres-longue et tres penible route en eussent fait 
perir presque autant), ils etaient reduits a la derniere misere ; ils 
manquaient de tout. II [I'empereur, Kien Long] leur fit preparer 
des logemens conformes a leur maniere de vivre ; il leur fit dis- 
tribuer des aliments et des habits ; il leur fit dormer des bcEufs, 
des moutons, et des ustensiles, pour les mettre en etat de former 
des troupeaux et de cultiver la terre, et totit cela a ses propres frais, 
qui se sont montes a des sommes immenses, sans compter I'argent 
qu'il a donne a chaque chef-de-famille, pour pourvoir a la sub- 
sistance de sa femme et de ses enfans." ^ 

Thus, after their memorable year of misery, the Kalmucks were 
replaced in territorial possessions, and in comfort equal, perhaps, 
or even superior, to that which the}'- had enjoyed in Russia, and 

1 When tliey arrived on our frontier (to the number of some hundreds 
of thousands, ahhough by extreme fatigue, hunger, thirst, and all the other 
hardships involved in a very long and very painful march, nearly as many 
more had perished) they were reduced to the last misery : they were in want 
of everything. He [the Emperor, Kien Long] caused dwellings to be made 
for them suitable to their iiabit of living ; he had food and clothing distributed 
among them ; he had cattle and sheep given them, and implements to put them 
in a condition to form herds and to cultivate the earth ; and all this at his own 
expense, which amounted to great sums, without counting the silver which he 
had given to each head of a family for providing for the support of his wife 
and his children. 

" This is from a eulogistic abstract of Kien Long's own narrative by one of 
his Chinese ministers named Yu-min-Tchoung, a translation of which was 
sent to Paris by the Jesuit missionary, P. Amiot, together with the transla- 
tion of the imperial narrative itself. The transcript is again by the French 
translator of Bergmann, and is again rather inaccurate." — Masson. 



72 THOMAS DE QUIA'CEV. 

with superior political advantages. But, if equal or superior, their 
condition was no longer the same : if not in degree, their social 
prosperity had altered in quality ; for, instead of being a purely 
pastoral and vagrant people, they were now in circumstances 
which obliged them to become essentially dependent upon agri- 
culture, and thus far raised in social rank, that, by the natural 
course of their habits and the necessities of life, they were 
effectually reclaimed from roving and from the savage customs 
connected with so unsettled a life. They gained also in political 
privileges, chiefly through the immunity from military service 
which their new relations enabled them to obtain. These were 
circumstances of advantage and gain. But one great disadvan- 
tage there was, amply to overbalance all other possible gain, — 
the chances were lost, or were removed to an incalculable dis- 
tance, for their conversion to Christianity, without which in these 
times there is no absolute advance possible on the path of true 
civilization. 

One word remains to be said upon the. personal interests con- 
cerned in this great drama. The catastrophe in this respect was 
remarkable and complete. Oubacha, with all his goodness, and 
incapacity of suspecting, had, since the mysterious affair on the 
banks of the Turgai, felt his mind ahenated from his cousin. He 
revolted from the man that would have miu'dered him ; and he 
had displayed his caution so visibly as to provoke a reaction in 
the bearing of Zebek-Dorchi, anil a displeastire which all his dis- 
simulation could not hide. This had produced a feud, which, by 
keeping them aloof, had probably saved the life of Oubacha ; for 
the friendship of Zebek-Dorchi was more fatal than his open 
enmity. After the settlement on the Ily, this feud continued to 
advance, until it came under the notice of the Emperor on occa- 
sion of a visit which all the Tartar chieftains made to his Majesty 
at his hunting lodge in 1772. The Emperor informed himself 
accurately of all the particulars connected with the transaction, 
of all the rights and claims put forward, and of the way in which 
they would severally affect the interests of the Kalmuck people. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 73 

The consequence was, that he adopted the cause of Oubacha, and 
repressed the pretensions of Zebek-Dorchi, who, on his part, so 
deeply resented this discountenance to his ambitious projects, 
that, in conjunction with other chiefs, he had the presumption 
even to weave nets of treason against the Emperor himself. 
Plots were laid, were detected, were bafHed : counterplots were 
constructed upon the same basis and with the benefit of the 
opportunities thus offered. 

Finally Zebek-Dorchi was invited to the imperial lodge, to- 
gether with all his accomplices ; and, under the skillful manage- 
ment of the Chinese nobles in the Emperor's establishment, the 
murderous artifices of these Tartar chieftains were made to recoil 
upon themselves ; and the whole of them perished by assassina- 
tion at a great imperial banquet ; for the Chinese morality is 
exactly of that kind which approves in everything the lex 
talioiiis : ^ — 

" Lex nee justior ulla est [as they think] 
Quam necis artifices arte perire sua."" 

So perished Zebek-Dorchi, the author and originator of the 
great Tartar exodus. Oubacha, meantime, and his people were 
gradually recovering from the effects of their misery, and repair- 
ing their losses. Peace and prosperity, under the gentle rule of a 
fatherly lord paramount, redawned upon the tribes ; their house- 
hold Lares, ^ after so harsh a translation to distant climates, found 
again a happy reinstatement in what had, in fact, been their 

1 The law of retaliation, in accordance witli which the punishment corre- 
sponds in kind to the injury. This manner of punishment was established by 
the Mosaic laws. " Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth : as he hath 
caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again " (Lev. xxiv. 20). 
Confucius, the greatest moral teacher the Chinese have had, taught, " Do 
not do unto another what you would not have another do to you." 

2 " There is no juster law than that plotters of murder should die by their 
own art." — Ovid: Ars Amatoria, i. 655. 

3 Household gods, or the cherished possessions of the family. 



74 THOMAS BE QUINCEY. 

primitive abodes; they found themselves settled in quiet sylvan 
scenes, rich in all the luxuries of life, and endowed with the per- 
fect loveliness of Arcadian ^ beauty. But from the hills of this 
favored land, and even from the level grounds, as they approach 
its western border, they still look out upon that fearful wilderness 
which once beheld a nation in agony, — the utter extirpation of 
nearly half a million from amongst its numbers, and for the re- 
mainder a storm of misery so fierce that in the end (as happened 
also at Athens, during the Peloponnesian War, from a different 
form of misery 2) very many lost their memory; all records of 
their past life were wiped out as with a sponge, utterly erased and 
canceled ; and many others lost their reason, some in a gentle 
form of pensi\-e melancholy, some in a more restless form of 
feverish delirium and nervous agitation, and others in the fixed 
forms of tempestuous mania, raving frenzy, or moping idiocy. 
Two great commemorative monuments arose in after years to 
mark the depth and permanence of the awe, the sacred and 
reverential grief, with which all persons looked back upon the 
dread calamities attached to the year of the tiger, — all who had 
either personally shared in those calamities and had themselves 
drunk from that cup of sorrow, or who had effectually been 
made witnesses to their results, and associated with their relief. 
Two great monuments, we say: first of all, one in the religious 
solenmity, enjoined by the dalai lama, called in the Tartar 
language a Romaimng ; that is, a national commemoration, with 
music the most rich and solemn, of all the souls who departed to 
the rest of paradise from the afflictions of the desert. This took 
place about six years after the arrival in China. Secondly, 
another, more durable, and more commensurate to the scale of 
the calamity and to the grandeur of this national exodus, in the 
mighty columns of granite and brass erected by the Emperor, 
Kien Long, near the banks of the Ily. These columns stand 

1 Arcadia was a district in tlie lieart of the Peloponnesus, which the imagi- 
nation of poets clothed in all pastoral and rural beauties and delights. 

2 See Note 3, p. 41. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 75 

upon the very margin of the steppes, and they bear a short but 
emphatic inscription to the following effect : — 

By the will of God, 

Here, upon the brink of these deserts. 

Which from this point begin and stretch away, 

Pathless, treeless, waterless, 

For thousands of miles, and along the margins of many mighty nations, 

Rested from their labors and from great afflictions. 

Under the shadow of the Chinese Wall, 

And by the favor of KlEN Long, God's Lieutenant upon Earth, 

The ancient Children of the Wilderness, — the Torgote Tartars, — 

Flying before the wrath of. the Grecian czar ; 

Wandering sheep who had strayed away from the Celestial Empire in the 

year 1616,^ 

But are now mercifully gathered again, after infinite sorrow, 

Into the fold of their forgiving shepherd. 

Hallowed be the spot forever, 

and 

Hallowed be the day — September 8, 1771! 

Amen. 

1 This date, it is said, is not correct. The flight from China was in the 
reign of Oubacha's great-grandfather ; some historians say fifty years, a 
Chinese mandarin seventy years, before the return. 



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